Date:         Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:13:24 -0500
Reply-To:     Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Felder <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Saving an OEM faucet (a bit long)
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After reading Tom's article on the SHURFlo faucet, I wish I had
one--except I do connect to "city" water way out in the country about
half the time I camp.

Tom's website talks about having to fix two OEM faucets, about the
same rate of failure I experience over the last four years. First
time, I bought a GoWesty replacement. About a year ago I filed a post
lamenting the lack of quality in the OEM faucet, and wondering if
GoWesty would do anything about replacing it.

A few days later, when I called GoWesty, the helpful guy there (his
name escapes me) admitted the problem, always a relief, and offered a
replacement at half price if I sent mine back. Since that would have
left me without one during prime camping time, I decided to invest an
afternoon to fix the faucet's two interrelated problems. One, the
faucet wouldn't work on city water. Two, the switch to the on-board
pump worked unpredictably. The problem in both instances seemed to be
that there was a disconnect between the turning of the handle and the
operation of the switch and valve that it was connected to. It had a
rubber feeling, like there was a drag and then a slight return of the
faucet to the wrong direction when letting go. A little bounce-back
that forced the operator to keep a steady hand on the knob at all
times.

While I ended up taking apart and cleaning the checkvalve assembly at
the water inlet in the side of the camper as part of the solution, I
also took the knob off of the pump handle and made two improvements
there. First, I lubricated the inner workings of the mechanism with
silicon (not oil, which is destructive to rubber and plastic and you
don't want in your water, but silicon from a little tube that
lubricates the O-rings of a camping stove, available at any camping
outfitters). It's been a year, so I don't remember exactly what I did,
but I just applied it to the obvious openings and surfaces where it
could make it down inside the mechanism. Silicon from a swimming pool
supply would surely work as well.

As put the knob back on the mechanism, I noticed that a crack had
developed in the recessed part that fits over the stem of the main
unit. The crack allowed the plastic cap to move, making accurate
rotation of the valve impossible. The crack had obviously been formed
by trying to fight the dragging force of the inner workings of the
valve. To remedy this, I filled the area around the inverted  cap with
JB weld poured in and let it harden, the re-assembled. This gave much
more "meat" to the knob, and only filled unused space under the knob
anyway.

Since the fix a year ago, the valve operation has been easy and
precise and has worked at it was obviously intended in both modes. I
have never encountered any of the few drops of lubricant I used,
obviously, since it was not on the "wet" side of the valve.

Jim