In over my head with pipe leaks 1978 Sovereign

[rogerdodger]

I was going to do it with gaterbytes also, but when I tried to make a cut on the copper under the sink, there was not enough room for my pipe cutter, and you must make cuts at right angle to pipe, or the gaters leak. It was easier in the long run to take out all old stuff, and start over. I pressure checked mine with air, 60# then water 45#, then water 60#, then fired up the water heater, pressure went to 80#. I think I may put back the overpressure valve I left out when doing mine. But first I am going to test the overpressure valve to see if it works. Good luck on your re-plumbing project. Over and out,

[Alumaholic]

Tubing cutter:

[Fishboy]

Kinda like the old way. Used all copper in my 63 Overlander. Wasnt really that hard, although with the price of copper it might get spendy. Be sure and recycle/sell all your old copper, will help pay for the new stuff. Good luck!

[dbrich]

pressure
line water leak, looks like it may be from shower line. 89 Excella Anyone had this problem?

[tealgraham]

Okay, things went pretty well. Running the pex was not too difficult. The cinch ring style fitting were pretty easy to use and no leaks after the first pass. I used the existing faucet connections under the kitchen sink and one is leaking. Picked a couple up yesterday and will change out. The kitchen faucet leaked internally. I took it apart to see if I could just replace a gasket, but I couldn't. I opted to purchase a new faucet. Easier said than done because on the single hole cutout in the sink. Home Depot had several inexpensive 2 and 3 hole cutout faucets, but the single hole offering is pricey. I settled on the glacier bay one in the pic on sale for $70 bucks. I could have saved money by cutting holes in the counter behind the sink and installing a 2 or 3 hole style, but figured this would look better and worth the expense in time / labor savings.

[tealgraham]

Victory!

[tealgraham]

Now onto the bathroom...I wanted to leave the 1/2" copper running to the bathroom sink and tied into 3/8 copper to the shower. The 1/2" pex connector was way too big for the copper tubing. I called sharkbite and they said it would not work on soft copper (sweat connected type)? Surprised to hear that since I researched pretty hard with no mention of this. I'm tented to try a 3/8 sharkbite on the 1/2 inch copper just to see. I tried to weld the sweat fitting in the pick and couldn't get it to take, just kept beading up and falling off. Suggestions???
For grins, I turned on the water with it connected (obviously leaking at connection) to see if shower and sink work. The shower did, but sink faucet is shot. Can't even turn the knob. I'm going to get the measurements and hopefully find a replacement at Home Depot this weekend. I obviously need some parts for the shower too. I know she looks rough, but consider she hasn't had running water in 15 plus years. I'm making progress one step at a time. Below are various pics. Again, thanks for your help. I hope this helps someone in the future in my situation. Please feel free to contact me with any questions and I'll do my best to share what I've learned / learning.

[tealgraham]

The shower valve gave me problems. I tried to pull it out and couldn't. I tried hard for a longtime. I don't think this value is supposed to be pulled out. The copper clip was there so seems like it should, but I ended up breaking it and never getting it out. So, I had to replace the shower faucet too. Triple crown at the end, new kitchen faucet, new shower faucet and new sink faucet. The shower faucet was $60 from Lowes, sink faucet was $14 from lowes.
I was able to access the back of the shower connection by taking out the bottom panel in the medicine cabinet. My initial plan was to leave this copper in place due to access, but once I was able to get to I put in pex. I now have all copper and no pex in the trailer. I took two hot showers in it this past weekend and it was awesome! I bought a new shower nozzle, but the original that came with the trailer worked much better so I'm using it. Speaks for the quality of Airstream OEM parts considering it is 34 years old and performs better than a new one.

[tealgraham]