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Date:         Thu, 02 May 1996 13:20:16 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jwakefield@4dmg.net (john wakefield)
Subject:      Westy RV sink water supply system

Greetings, When I bought my Westy, the 12VDC RV sink water supply system didn't work. I checked the spigot assembly, and discovered that it includes a primitive on/off switch, the contacts of which may touch if the knob is rotated. Bridging them caused no water flow nor audible noise, but a meter revealed that there was a load being engaged. Next I located the tank access, located below a removable steel panel forming part of the bottom of the rear-most storage space just below where the rear fold-away table is stored. In that tank I found the lime encrusted water pump. Deliming it with Lime-Away restored it's operation. The system worked for many cycles until the last day of my 3 day outing to watch the shuttle launch and other pleasant distractions. There again, if someone is contemplating going to watch a shuttle launch, I can give some specific information so you can have a better view than I and my guest had at Florida's Getty State park. This is the officially recomended RV viewing spot, but it's terrible. The fed erected a huge mound of earth to block Russian ship view of launches, and it's in between the pad and the RV park! There's a wonderful clear view available without cost from which preflight activities can be watched. But I digress. Now, either turning the switch on or bridging its contacts with a good clean clip lead set, results in a period of several seconds with no action but measurable load, followed by very weak water flow. I speculate that I have a high resistance connection in the electrical path. I'd prefer to know the best order of disassembly in this area, as it appears to be rather messy. I'm going to be in that area because of the cycling refrigerator fan anyway, but if someone could give instructions first, I'd appreciate it. Now, even when that's corrected, I intend to alter the Westy's primitive sink supply design. It's designed to flow full blast on or nothing. I want to be able to regulate the flow rate. The two obvioius alternatives are to control the electric power to the pump or to introduce an adjustable restrictive valve into the water line. To me, it's no contest. I feel that regulating this little pump electically would be a very poor approach. If someone wants to discuss the reasons, we can do that, but I'll assume others would reach the same conclusion here. Now if others have introduced a simple clean pleasing valve on/next to the sink, please describe just where you installed it and what valve you used. I feel that it's important that whatever valve is introduced, that it should offer virtually turbulant free unrestricted flow at its fully open position. This clearly precludes the use of many common valve designs. But most good gate valves I've seen are too ugly. This must work well in flow control and to the eye. Hope this generates some activity by this bright group. Thanks much, John


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