A Dragon's Tale

Toilet pump

 I have to confess this was one of those jobs I had been putting off, who wouldn’t. It turned out to be straight forward and not unpleasant at all. Having “Googled” the fault I was reasonably sure that the culprit of the back-flow was the poorly named joker valve. This is a “rubber” one way valve that allows the contents to the toilet to be pumped out and not come back. I could have bought just the spare parts but opted to buy a complete new pump assembly. I figured I could take my time to service the original and would then have a complete spare in the event of a major failing on a long trip.

For obvious reasons I flushed plenty of water through the system before taking it apart and of course pumped it dry. The seacock for the inlet water was closed before simply loosening the jubilee clips and removing the hoses. I first unbolted the flange that holds the joker valve and the problem was immediately obvious. A stone like material was blocking the joker valve partial open. The pump assembly itself was simply removed after removing the retaining bolts.  Before installing the new pump I checked the outlet hose leading to the holding for any signs of the stone like material. Surprising it was completely clear so not further action needed. The new pump installation was simply a case of plug and play, reversing the dissembly procedure. And that’s it, a new properly function pump.

If you have a back flow leakage, it is almost certainly the “joker valve”. Replacing this is straight forward. Just make sure you flush thoroughly with fresh water before dissembling and you should be OK. Good luck!