Well, as we know, nothing is ever simple with thirty year old vehicles.
First off, Andrew adjusted the idle 3/4 of a turn and it completely solved our stalling problem. Thank goodness. We drove it out to Cartersville to a boat launch Sunday and had NO stalls, at all. YAY!
That said, the next day we took the Brave to Lowes to buy new plumbing fittings to replace the ones on the toilet...the original threaded attachments were all correct, but someone had simply glued flexible tubing to rigid tubing down the line as a fix instead of actually using the correct stuff. The connection blew apart there at Grey's Point, so we wanted to re-do it the right way.
We spent about three hours at Lowes, both inside shopping and in the parking lot working. First off, we needed to remove the old collar fitting where the toilet mounts to the floor. It was bolted down to the plywood foor with the old original orange carpet under it, and the pipe from the blackwater tank was glue welded to the collar.
We bought a small handsaw and cut the collar/connecting pipe off the blackwater tank from underneath the rv. It was quite a chore, as there was very limited moving room under the rv for you to operate a handsaw, and you could really only use one arm to do it. It was strenuous and awkward, but Andrew and I took turns cutting until it was done.
We wanted to high five each other after that was done, for real. While we were cutting it, the blackwater tank sprung a tiny drip leak at one of the seams of the patches. GREAT. We can easily fix it temporarily, but it just drives home our need for a new tank.
Once the old collar was off the floor, we were able to use a section of rubber tubing (it comes in all kinds of diameters in the ABS plumbing section at Lowes) to seam the pipe coming off the tank to the bottom of the new collar.
Trust me, it took a lot longer inside Lowes coming up with a solution to seam the two pipes than it took to actually do it. Thankfully, we drove the RV to Lowes and could take measurements in the parking lot as we needed. It was a big help to have it right there so we purchased the correct sizes of fittings.
After that was all situated, we went back into Lowes with the fitting from the toilet to try and find a match. There was none. The plastic fitting was a specific brand that was extinct to Lowes. It is called Flair-it PEX fitting/tubing, and apparently Pleasants Hardware carries it. You can order it online as well.
After literally an hour trying different fittings and potential solutions at Lowes, we had to call it quits. Nothing there was going to be a confident seal or fix, and we needed to find actual Flair-it PEX parts.
We will work this week on getting that resolved, provided that Pleasants has the correct parts.
That aside, we wanted to use the rest of the daylight and wonderful weather left to get the rubber flooring at least cut and ready to go when we have the correct PEX fittings in hand. We measured the bathroom floor, squared up our piece of rubber floor, and made the correct cuts. Andrew read online that cutting rubber floor can be a MAJOR hassle because the material has such a high coefficient of friction, and that it is best and smoothest cut by using soapy water as a lubricant. Well it worked like a charm. The floor piece was cut with no problems and little strain.
We mocked it up in the bathroom to make sure it is a tight fit, and it is.
We want to apply a metal reinforcing plate around the collar to really beef up the toilet support, and we need to get our PEX fittings, then we will be ready to lay down the floor! Before we left for the day, we filled a few small holes with wood filler and left a container of Damp-Rid in the bathroom to absorb any moisture left over from the flood at Grey's Point. We will sand it, sweep and vacuum before we lay the new floor.
We are amped and pretty set up to get this finished this week! (as long as we can actually get the fittings in town...)
GO TEAM!
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