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Date:         Wed, 20 May 1998 17:00:46 -0400
Reply-To:     Malcolm Stebbins <Malcolm.Stebbins@MSVU.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Malcolm Stebbins <Malcolm.Stebbins@MSVU.CA>
Organization: Mount Saint Vincent University
Subject:      Westy Sink Trap
Comments: To: vanagon@VANAGON.COM
Content-type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I am writing this in the hopes that some archeologist will find this in the archives while studying the love life of the vanagon tribe, and s/he may be able to put another piece of the puzzle in place.

On my ‘91 (Canadian) Westy, I had problems with my sink draining slowly and leaking from the under-the-van outlet.

Removing the hose and the under-the-van outlet were easy.

The under-the-van outlet had a crack in it. Someone had tightened it too much and had cracked the flange. Some epoxy did the trick here. Prior to reinstalling the under-the-van outlet, I sprayed both the in and outside of the hole with oily "rust stop" stuff. A day later I sprayed both the in and outside with ‘rust-stop' paint. Three days later I sprayed the outside with asphalt. I made a new gasket from some closed cell foam padding and reinstalled the under-the-van outlet being careful not to re-crack the plastic flange.

The sink trap did not go so smoothly. The little ‘tab' on the bottom of the trap just kept going around and around and around - not unscrewing. I checked the archives and asked the folks on the list. Some comments were helpful, but no advice to get the little ‘tab' unscrewed. In retrospect, I might have been able to get the business end of needle nose pliers down the drain to get a purchase on the nut. Or soak the whole trap in ‘lock-ease' (after getting the water out).

Some listees said that the little ‘tab' bolt would break off if rusted to much. Some said they had to drill it out, I don't see why, if it broke off, the trap should come off easily. Maybe they had an earlier version. I did see on an ‘81 that there are four ‘tab' screws around the outside of the trap. Why mine is different is news to me.

Back to my story; I pulled too hard and I pulled the tab-bolt and nut out of the plastic housing inside of the trap. The good news was that the trap came off easily now with just a medium tug (there were 7 burned paper matches in the sink trap - previous owner).

So I had to fix the inside bracket that I broke. I mixed up a lot of epoxy and wrapped a bolt in plastic tape and epoxyed around the bolt - so that I'd still have a whole in the middle of the inside bracket. After the epoxy dried I took out the bolt and the plastic tape - the epoxy didn't stick.

I used a stainless steel nut, bolt, and washer to replace the original rusted tab-bolt and nut. I decided to use a Robertson headed bolt (a Phillips headed bolt would work) and to reverse the direction. I put the bolt and washer down the sink (it was too long to install it from under the sink) so that it would go through the (repaired) plastic bracket. I smeared it with silicon grease, put on the trap and affixed the nut from the bottom-outside of the trap.

The fitting of the hole in the bottom of the trap and the bolt was not tight, and in an effort to keep it from leaking, I smeared it with Shoe-Goo (silicon chalking would work) to seal it.

I put the Robertson screw driver down the sink to hold the bolt and the wrench on the nut and tightened it up just enough to keep it snug and not break my repaired (inside) bracket.

I re-attached the hose, top and bottom, and I am now ready to do the dishes on our next outing. I am also going to try hooking up the outside drain to an expandable water jug.

If you live up north, or travel to the mountains, don't forget to put a little anti-freeze down the sink, to keep it from freezing/cracking in the cold weather.

If you have read this far, I hope it helps..........

Good luck, Malcolm


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