Replacing black tank valve

[vacationer04]

My 2004 HR Vacationer 36WDD has a leaky knife valve. It fills the drain except for having a short piece of garden hose connected to the cap poking through the floor hatch when travelling with "stuff" in the black tank. I found that out the hard way. Looking inside the wet bay I have observed that it is cable controlled and is too far back to reach. Is there an access panel somewhere to be able to service or change it? I have considered that it may have debris stuck in it but no flushing or cleaning attempts from above have solved the problem. I don't see any way from the wet bay to get to it. The cable idea seems less than trustworthy to start with but I can't engineer another method to replace it with other technology now.

[l1v3fr33ord1]

vacationer04-

What you're asking can be very coach-specific. We have a different coach and I hesitate to reply, but it may help...

On our 2008 HR Admiral there is a small hatch in a compartment on the opposite side of the coach from the wet bay. If that hatch is open, the wet bay becomes a "pass-through" compartment. The hatch is small- maybe 18 inches wide and 12 inches high. I can squeeze through it if I put my arms in first. The black tank valve is about two feet from the hatch. I believe the hatch also gives access to the Ford's fuel pump.

I can get access to the grey tank valve by removing the white valve panel in the wet bay. The black tank valve is way up in there, and I could get at it the same way, but it's almost impossible to reach the cable clamp from that approach.

As are yours, both valves on our coach are cable-driven. And we have a very small leak-by on one of the valves (probably the grey) that will have me working on them when warm weather returns. I'm also thinking of ways to replumb the drain piping to eliminate the valve cables.

I rebuilt the wet bay in our coach last summer. Here's a link to a post, with some pictures. If you want to bounce some ideas around, feel free to send me a private message.