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Old 09-01-2016, 06:46 AM   #1
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Vacuflush Tips

So a couple of weeks ago, my vacuflush system started making a different noise than usual. I am use to its typical ka woosh, ka woosh, ka woosh but it had added a new noise to its repertoire. About halfway through a cycle, it would start banging loudly as if someone were pounding on the floor with every rotation of the pump. I thought great, this will be a nightmare. I readied myself to tear into it by reading every post I could find and figured I would do all the maintenance that was recommended at the same time. Well I haven't got around to ordering the parts but I had some time on my hands yesterday and figured I would take a look and see just how bad the access to the pump was as everyone had reported that on models a couple years old like mine, you had to be a contortionist to reach the pump which lie between the frame rails.

To my surprise there were two access panels and although not easy, I had plenty of room to see what was going on and was able to reach everything without a ton of hassle. I ran it while watching the pump and could not notice anything out of the ordinary so I started by removing the motor. At first I thought the motor was fine but upon further inspection I noticed a tiny bit of play in the cam that attaches to the main shaft of the motor. I tightened the set screw that holds it to the shaft and the play went away. I knew by the sound it had made and the amount of play that was in it, I had just fixed my problem without any new parts. Now I had also removed the bellows to take a look at them and realized there was no part of them that could make the noise so I cleaned them up and reinstalled them. When it was time to fire it all up again, the noise was indead gone but now the pump will not build pressure.

The tips I wanted to mention are this. If you have the pounding noise, you can reach the set screw by removing the cap over the crankshaft and rod of the bellows. Had I known, I would not have had to disassemble anything and my problems would now be solved. The second tip is if you are going to replace the bellows or duck bill valves, it is much easier to remove the entire pump and motor as a unit and do the work on a bench. The third and final tip is that the access is nowhere near as bad as folks make it out to be although I am a bit sore this morning due to bending over while working in the compartment. Im sure the reason my pump is not building pressure is due to my carelessness in reinstalling the o rings on the bellows so I am going to wait for my new bellows, o rings and duckbill valves to get here and then try it again. Once you do it, the second time is a breeze. I will post some pics of the compartment with the access panels removed. I hope this helps a couple folks not only in repairing there systems but also gives them the courage to try as it isnt that bad a job.
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Old 09-01-2016, 06:51 AM   #2
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As you can see by the pics, through the rear most compartment, you can easily see the vacuum tank and through the compartment second from the rear of the coach, you have great access to the pump.
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Old 09-01-2016, 06:59 AM   #3
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I've found that once you remove the duck bills, they torque a bit when reinstalling. A slight twist and they don't seal.
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Old 09-01-2016, 07:02 AM   #4
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By the way, to access the cam on the crankshaft and the rod on the bellows, you have to remove the white cover you see in the second pic. At first I thought it was riveted on but you only need to use a tiny (think eyeglasses) phillips head screwdriver to loosen the two screws on the top of the cover a bit and then slide the cover a 1/4 inch to the right and pop it off. You do not need to completely remove the screws as there are notches in the cover.
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Old 09-01-2016, 07:05 AM   #5
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I had planned ahead for this and the night before had flushed a bunch of water and laundry detergent through the system. I had also flushed the mixture one last time and shut the pump off and let it sit in there overnight. I flushed it one last time with the water pump off and then began disassembly. I had not one drop of gross water come out of the system and although it certainly didnt smell like roses, it was very tolerable.
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Old 09-01-2016, 07:19 AM   #6
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Quote:
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I had planned ahead for this and the night before had flushed a bunch of water and laundry detergent through the system. I had also flushed the mixture one last time and shut the pump off and let it sit in there overnight. I flushed it one last time with the water pump off and then began disassembly. I had not one drop of gross water come out of the system and although it certainly didnt smell like roses, it was very tolerable.
So glad they moved mine on the '16.
Do you think it is advisable to check the set screw every so often (once a year)?
Rather do the preventative when you can prep the whole system with a cleaner.
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Old 09-01-2016, 02:25 PM   #7
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I would check it when you do your servicing the unit and use some Loctite and you should be fine goiong forward.
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Old 09-01-2016, 07:06 PM   #8
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Thanks for this. Mine has been doing it since new in mid June. It is at the dealer now, when they heard it the response was "hmm, that isn't right." We shall see.
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Old 09-01-2016, 09:23 PM   #9
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If it starts hammering about halfway through the cycle, that is the same problem I had. Similar to a rod knock in an engine. When it built pressure, it would start knocking when it was under load. If they remove the white cover, they could cycle the motor a few times to get the set screw side of the cam to face upward and then its just a simple tightening with an allen wrench. I wouldnt remove the set screw, if you drop it, it will fall into the open top of the bellows and now you have big problems. Ask me how I know.
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Old 09-01-2016, 09:29 PM   #10
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Here is a pic of the pump with the white cover off. The big bolt in the center is what holds the white rod of the bellows to the crankshaft. The gold bearing looking thing behind the bolt and rod is the cam. In the picture the set screw is on the left side of it out of view bit if I rotated it a quarter turn you could just put an Allen wrench to it from the top, heck you could probably reach it from the sides, looks like there is enough room. Anyway, its worth a try on yours before disassembling the whole thing.
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Old 09-01-2016, 09:31 PM   #11
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In the previous pic, notice how well fleetwood bolted down the pump. They never put in two of the four hold down bolts
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Old 09-01-2016, 09:36 PM   #12
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I've found that once you remove the duck bills, they torque a bit when reinstalling. A slight twist and they don't seal.
When you reinstall them, you should lubricate them with liquid soap and only snug them down. The soap keeps them from binding and twisting and just snugging them down by hand is all you really need.
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Old 09-01-2016, 09:38 PM   #13
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I read a ton of articles about this toilet system over on a bunch of marine sights and the good news is that they are looked upon as very reliable systems. I think the folks in the rv world are just a bit scared of them due to where the manufactures have mounted them in the past but all in all they seem to hold up well and are easily serviceable if you can get to them easilylike you can on the late model fleetwoods.
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Old 09-02-2016, 12:37 PM   #14
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If it starts hammering about halfway through the cycle, that is the same problem I had. Similar to a rod knock in an engine. When it built pressure, it would start knocking when it was under load. If they remove the white cover, they could cycle the motor a few times to get the set screw side of the cam to face upward and then its just a simple tightening with an allen wrench. I wouldnt remove the set screw, if you drop it, it will fall into the open top of the bellows and now you have big problems. Ask me how I know.
Yep. That describes mine. I'll see what happens when I get it back. Mine has gotten gradually worse, it is hammering for at least half of the cycle maybe more. It started out only the last few seconds of the cycle. At least now I have an idea of where to start. Maybe I'll print this out for the dealer when they say they and Dometic don't have a clue.
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