-
Worked on plumbing issues last week.
1. Our coach has two sinks in the bathroom area. When we bought the coach last year, the water in one of the sinks wouldn’t shut off completely using the faucets. Drip … drip …. drip. So I took the panels off under the sink and turned off the water to the faucets for that sink.
Finally last week I decided to go back after the problem. I probably should have taken pictures, but didn’t. Liberty Coach used Grohe fixtures which are high end, I would expect nothing less from Liberty. It took a while to figure out how to get the faucets apart. There are actually four parts: Top of the faucet screws off to reveal a screw that holds the handle to the business part of the faucet. Take the screw out and the faucet handle lifts off to reveal the business part of the faucet that does all the work. Then there is an extrucsion (sp?) which screws off the business part, one was on so tight I had to wrap one of it with Gorilla tape and carefully used a Channel-Lock to loosen it (righty tighty, lefty loosey). All the pieces are really substantial, precision machined parts.
The business parts are held in place by large, flat nuts (top nut is covered by the extruction) which I removed. After removing the hoses below (one supplied water and the other went to the spigot). I had the thing in my hand.
Working up under the sink in the vanity cabinet was one the worst places to work I’ve been in ever. No room, bottom rim of the vanity cabinet across the middle of my back. If you’re large in height or girth or both, good luck!
I tried to find replacements for the business part on the Internet but there wasn’t enough informaiton on the piece to find anything. I contacted Glen at Plumbing Parts Plus in West Allis, WI. He said these can’t be rebuilt and to bring the thing to him, he probably had the replacement parts. Which he did at $40/faucet. I’ve bought entire faucet assemblies for less than $40! Glen said each faucet/spigot assembly was probably over $700 when new. Glen said something about the mechanism being ceramic and if it isn’t used often enough once a little calcium builds up it will leak.
The faucets went back together like they came apart, but I had a couple of false starts to get the right clearance between the extruction (which is on top of the counter) and handle which rotates. This clearance is dictated by the height of the business part (which I would recommend marking before taking the thing apart. I was in and out of vanity cabinet five or six times to get it right and had Cathie helping me. If you have really long arms, it might be a one person job otherwise bring help. I short handled channel lock and short handled open end wrenches would be very helpful.
End resuilt: No more drip … drip … drip.
2. After having the coach a few months and making a few trips with it we noticed that the carpet in the bedroom on the curb side next to the bathroom wall would be damp. The amount of the dampness varied in intensity and seemed to manifest itself more when we were nose up/tail down. My biggest fear was that the shower leaked.
So I took the panels off under the vanity near the bedroom. Turned the water pump on and ran the shower for 30 minutes waiting for it to leak. Fortunately its appears the show doesn’t leak. What was leaking were a number of the plastic connections (PVC? CPVC? ABS?) that run from the main water line up to the faucets both on the hot and cold sides. I was able to hand tighten the connections and the leaks stopped, except for the last connection to the bottom of the faucet (almost impossible to get my hand up there to get a good grip) until I put a Channel-Lock on it being careful to not over tighten the connection. There are a number of connections as the water lines work there way up from the main line to the individual faucets. Each connection and elbow creates a possible point of leaking. Why Liberty didn’t use a one-piece polished, braided, copper hose from the main line to the faucet is a mystery to me. Must be a good reason why.
During our next trip I’ll probably pull the panels again to ensure there isn’t any residual leaking.
Next project …. replacing the side clearance lights with the LED units I picked up at the Know Your Prevost
Seminar in July. -
0 Replies
Sorry, there were no replies found.
Log in to reply.