When the stars are out of alignment......

7:56 am - Friday - March 29th - Fontana, CA - 49° F, 72% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the west by northwest.....clear blue skies today with a forecast high of 73° F.

There are some days, whether or not you live in an RV, that everything seems to conspire against you.  Nothing comes easy.  Everything is 'knock down, drag out'.  Kinda like 'pulling teeth'.  My goals for Thursday were quite modest by my standards as of late.  I wanted to troubleshoot the new Seaflo water pump, get it working, and then dump our black tank.  If I managed to get through those two endeavors I thought I might take on another project, but it was not to be.

I contacted the folks on eBay from whom I bought the Seaflo water pump about my problem and they suggested two tests to run on the pump. First off I was to supply power to the pump and then, using an Allen wrench, adjust the pressure setting to see if it was the pressure switch which was keeping it from operating.  No luck.  Next up I was to disconnect one of the wires from the pressure switch, thereby bypassing the switch, and supply power directly to the motor.  No luck.  The seller advised that if it was the switch they would send a new switch, but if it was the motor they would replace the entire pump.  So, now I must remove the new Seaflo pump and reinstall the Surflo pump, which I just removed.  In all it took me a little over an hour to reinstall the Surflo pump. 

Then, being a curious sort of fellow, I decided to take apart the old Shurflo pump I had removed back in Mississippi to see why it stopped working.  No harm, no foul, right?  Maybe it's something simple, and then I'll have another backup pump.  As I disassembled the pump I could see no obvious reason why it wasn't working.  I have this electrical component spray (Gaig Pro Gold Connector Enhancer, which is now manufactured under the name Hosa Deoxit Gold) that I use sometimes when electrical stuff stops working, and there is no obvious problem.  It cleans all the contacts, and stuff.  Once that was done I reassembled the pump, and hooked it up to my 12 volt 'bench tester' and it worked!  I should have done that before I bought the new pump.

This stuff works like a charm!

By the time I finished working on the old Shurflo motor it was approaching 11 am, and it was time to get out my Shurflo macerator pump assembly and dump the black tank.  I hooked everything up as I always do, and before opening the dump valve flipped the switch on the pump to be sure it was working.....it wouldn't run....no sound....just total silence.  This pump has worked flawlessly for 3 years, so why does it decide not to work today?  I disconnected everything and took the pump into the trailer to take it apart and see why it would not run.  When I had the 'top' off the motor the motor would run just fine, but once it was reassembled nothing.  It appeared to me that the rubber impeller was causing everything to bind up, so I applied a little lube to it, then put it back together and that seemed to do the trick.  So, I took it back out and hooked it up again, and then tested it before I opened the dump valve, and it ran.  Once the dump valve is open you have about 2/3's of a gallon of effluent in the tube, and if the pump will not turn on you must close the dump valve again, and then prepare to deal with 2/3's of a gallon of very nasty stuff.  I usually put a large Rubbermaid tub under it, which is sufficient to catch it all, but it is not pleasant at all.  Anyway, I opened the dump valve and then flipped the switch to the 'ON' position.....nothing!  Oh no, here we go.

I won't bore you with the gruesome details of what followed over the next 2.5 hours of dumping the black tank, or provide any pictures.....no that would not be a good idea.....but I did get it done after about two plus hours of mind numbing effort.  It usually takes me about 20 minutes to dump the tank using the macerator pump.  I had to detach the pump 3 times from the dump valve to take it apart, and get it running again, so that was three more times dealing with a Rubbermaid tub of effluent.  I did finally manage to finish about 1:30 pm, and then it took me another 30 minutes to clean up, and put everything away, except that Shurflo pump, which I thoroughly cleaned and then took inside the trailer to investigate why it is not working properly.  I discovered after disassembling it on my workbench once again that I had inadvertently reinstalled the rubber impeller upside down during one of the numerous times I took it apart to figure out why it was not working, and although it worked well enough to finish dumping the black tank it was causing the pump motor to labor, and to stop periodically.....doh!  Just to be on the safe side I have ordered a new macerator pump, and will have it before I dump the tank again in about 8-9 days.

By this time it was after 2:30 pm, and I was ready for a nap....it was a nice nap.  Anther thing I wanted to do Thursday was take another bike ride,  so about 4:30 pm I changed clothes, got the Cannondale Bad Boy out of the trailer and headed west on the Pacific Electric Trail to Cherry Ave. and back.  As is often the case in the late afternoon there was a strong breeze coming directly out of the west, which buffeted me all the way to Cherry Ave., but then I got to turn around and head eastward enjoying the wonderful tailwind.  Going both directions I tried to push a little harder than I had the first 3 times, and got very good results on my Garmin.  You will recall that on my last ride I averaged 11.8 mph and covered the 11 miles in just over 56 minutes.......

.....well on Thursday I made the round trip ride in 53 minutes and 41 seconds, and averaged 12.2 mph burning 574 caloric units.....2.5 minutes faster than the previous time, and 4/10's of a mile per hour faster.....nice!

Well, that was my star crossed Thursday.  I'm very thankful those days are rare, and far in between....thanks for stopping by!

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