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Has anyone ever pulled apart a Thetford Aqua Magic Galaxy toilet? Or any RV toilet? My toilet is not holding water in the bowl when the blade is closed. It needs a new blade seal. I called an RV dealer and they have a seal kit with 5 seals for different things when it is apart for $50. I am going to pick it up and replace the seals in the toilet this weekend.
Has anyone ever done this project? What should I expect? I figure I’ll do it before I start using the toilet this season and the Black tank shouldn’t be as pungent since I rinsed it and haven’t used it since I winterized it…..It should smell like roses
We had the same problem and when we talked to the Thetford people, they said that before you buy any seal kits make a tool to clean out the the seal area. They said that many times it is filled with paper and not allow the seal to function. I still carry our hand made tool after ten years. The unit still holds water even after a long storage. You can bend the end of a small screw driver and file all the rough edges to use as a clean out tool. It should be cleaned out with the toilet blade in the open position so that you will not damage the "O" ring.
Good Luck!
I removed and re-installed the toilet in my BF when I installed a new wood floor. I found that the water lines were partially blocked by gunk buildup. They are clear plastic tubing. I removed, cleaned and re-installed them. Getting to some of the bolts that hold the unit to the floor is a pain. I did replace the large O ring that is between the toilet and the holding tank. Can't remember what else I did at the time but it a straighforward process. Be carefiul not to drop the mounting bolts into the holding tank! That happened to me and I outlined in a post on this website the "fun" I had in removing them from the tank.
I have had to clean the seal.. more than once. The "not holding water" is the obvious indicator that it is required..once again.
It usually is paper jammed in, sometimes worse.
The problem is it is in an impossible location to see what's going on. Having had to do on the road fixes, I have found you can break the blade off of a disposable plastic knife and use that to clean the seal.
Each such cleaning requirement is followed by (once again) strict instructions that you should watch that everything has gone down the drain before releasing the peddle.
The fact that the cleaning requirement continues to periodically come up is indicative of my delivery effectiveness.
Be sure to get a new "O" ring the toilet sits on. This is the big foam ring which goes between the floor and the bottom of the toilet. The old one is crushed flat and most likely will not seal well when you put the toilet back.
I always take some wadded up newspaper and stuff it in the hole to be sure I don't drop something down into the black water tank. It also keeps the smell from wafting up from the black water tank.
As long as you are mechanically inclined you won't have a problem disassembling the toilet to replace the seal. You will probably have to separated the top half of the toilet from the bottom half to get to the seal. Just plan on taking your time and be sure you know how it goes back together.
I figured same plumbing rules applied indoor -vs- RV. Stuff a rag down the hole for odor control and keep stuff out of the hole.
I picked up the gasket kit today. There was a big foam seal included and I made sure to ask if that was the floor seal/wax ring equivalent. They said yes so I believe I am good to go. I will charge up my video camera and see if I can get a video of it.
I did find this video. The guy isn't changing the seals I am but it is a similar vintage Aqua Magic toilet. It is a Starlight model, not the Galaxy model that I have, but it seems like they are very similar models. He has several parts to his video....they drag on. This part seemed to show the most guts that I was interested in. A prior one also talked about how he got the toilet out.
I would think a safer strategy would be to flush the tank a few times with plain water and add some commercial perfumed stuff that you use to control odors during regular use of the toilet and stuff a rag in the opening while working on it as suggested in an earlier post. Bleach by itself is quite dangerous in enclosed areas, the lavatories in our coaches certainly qualify as enclosed areas. If there is much urine left in the holding tank the chemical reaction between the urea in the urine and the bleach releases pure chlorine gas and chloramine gas. Both of which are very toxic. This is the same reaction that you get when you mix bleach and ammonia which can be disasterous.
I rinsed out the tank real good in October so there was nothing in it besides a little antifreeze from winterizing it. It didn't smell bad. My wife came in when the toilet was out and looked down the hole. She said "so when someone calls something a $h!t hole thats what they mean?"
I thought Urine was ammonia based and I know you don't mix Bleach and ammonia.
