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Black Tank Valve Replacement Project
So my black tank valve started to be harder and harder to open and close. Then I started to notice a little bit of water coming out behind the twist cap when dumping, maybe a half cup or so. Not really thinking much, actually not wanting to think much about it, then one day the valve pull rod pulled totally free and I practically fell over backward. Holding the rod in my hand in a panic I wondered how I was going to empty the tank. After much poking and trying I was lucky enough to be able to open the black tank valve one more time, and we were only three days drive to home. We managed and I had a new project to replace the valve once home.
Unfortunately Airstream has built their trailers without any consideration of valve replacement. My generation of trailers have all tanks laying on top of a heavy duty galvanized belly pan that is bolted to the frame with sturdy bolts. So the only access is to cut a hole into the belly pan, a difficult project from under the trailer for sure. My hole is 7" wide by 15" long. It takes some muscle and good aircraft snips to make the cut.
The Valterra valve has gaskets on both sides that mate into matching lips on the adjacent couplings. Bottom line to remove and replace the valve the connecting parts (both sides) need to shift away from the valve about 1/2". The only way I found to do so was disconnect the rubber coupling between the Y part (merging the gray and black tanks), and shove it backwards towards the gray tank. From there I was able to properly align the black tank valve and its gaskets.
Hopefully you'll never be faced with this problem, but in case, and you are persistent, a repair is possible.
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