Gally Maid head problem

[spincycle]

The galley made head(four years old) is not making the usual motor sound when it flushes any more. the poop does down but there is no noise, lots of water does in to the bowl, and lots of water stays in the bowl after the flush, then large bubbles come out of the head for 5 seconds, then it stops and all is well. any ideas?

Spincycle

[Captned]

uuhhhhhh.... Could be that your pipes are clogged up or your discharge sea cock is plugged. The bubbling thing is going on with mine right now and I am pretty sure that I need to do the dreaded head discharge pipe cleaning. It has been about 4 years since I have done it.... :(

Captned

[Pascal]

hi Pete

which one? i know the day head was working great. Remember that you have the little broken fitting on on the elbow behind the midship head, i believe this is used to prime the suction side of the pump so it could affect pumping out the bowl

sounds like someone used too much TP, so the water level rises and you dont' get the sound of the pump emptying the bowl. sometimes the TP will disolve if there is enough water in there and after a little while it will clear up.

cant' be the discharge seacocks since they all go to the holding tank, not overboard.

[Bob Bradley]

I just replaced my discharge hoses and head as well. My hoses were pretty heavily calcified. I could flush before, but what I had to do was flush a little, then stop and wait for the bubbles to come up, then finish flushing. It was as though there was a vapor lock of some sort in the line.

[Nonchalant1]

I think it may be because the discharge side doesn't suck out as fast as it normally should. If something is wrapped around the macerator T or the spiral rotor, it can't discharge as much water as the input pump puts into the bowl. The two sides are normally matched for input versus output. That could cause some of the stuff to get flushed, but would also cause slow discharge and maybe air bubbles formed when the discharge pull is stronger than the water that can make it through.

If somebody put a cotton "mouse" down the head, even a long time ago, it could be acting up now. To remedy, you gott'a take the discharge cone off and unwrap anything that's stuck in there.

Alternatively, it may just be the rubber stator wearing out. That might cause the same effect. I fixed one of mine by just replacing the stator (which costs >$100 at Galley Maid, I seem to recall).

Doug Shuman

[spincycle]

it is the head in the VIP stateroom under the pilot house, yes the small clear plactic hose was broken off during a few days use, but i have repaired that and the water is squirting through the small hose again. i did notice quite a head smell in the engine room after flushing a few times, but no water discharging into the bilge areas from the head.

Spincycle

[thoward]

OMG the rebuild kit is the bomb...lol I replaced mine and they work much better now. I even found a "mouse wisker" wrapped around the pump shaft, luckly the "mouse" continued. I do get a water back up and some burping after running on plane as the suction side looses prime. If I bump over the motor a couple times and wait a little while it reprimes....

[Pascal]

we didn't use that one so i dont know how well it worked before. Indeed it could be something wrapped up around the T that's restricting flow. if that's the case the only fix is to pull the housing off that side of the pump, which i think is in the genny room, isn't it?

The smell is coming from the vent, when you flush air is expelled out of the vent and depending on the wind the smell probably drift in the ER. I smelled that when i got to the boat in Sav. and i went to the ER after using the head. Not much that can be done, except adding a charcoal filter to the vent but if you do, you need to make sure the tank will never overflow or it will clog the filter and cause a lot of other problems.

[SKYCHENEY]

I always closed the incoming water valve about half way on my GalleyMaid's. That did two things:
1) it reduced the water coming into the bowl keeping it from getting so full and
2) it helped to keep my holding tank from filling up so fast.

You might try that first and see if it helps.

[spincycle]

where would I find the incoming water line for the head?

[Pascal]

from what i recall, the seacocks for the forward heads are under the genny room. The labels are on edge of the floor, there are three intakes in there, two for the heads, one for the genny.

it's probably just going to be a temporary fix though, they were working fine with the right amount of water in bowl, eventually you're going to have to open that pump :-)

[spincycle]

when i open the pump what is the procedure? do i close the valves or just open it up and hold my nose?

spincycle

[Pascal]

yeah, something like that :-( although after diapers... head maintenance is no big deal!

try to get as much as the water out of the bowl first, maybe with a shop vac. close the seacock, unbolt the front of the pump (the side with the large hose) and pull the housing. you probalby have to remove the hose from the pump first...

I'm sure Angela can chime in, she's done that before.... i helped her with some muscle power to get the hose off but dont' remember if there was any other thing to do first.

if it's not completly plugged in, try flushing a lot of water before to ensure the lines are full of water.. not something else!

[Nonchalant1]

when i open the pump what is the procedure? do i close the valves or just open it up and hold my nose?

spincycle


If you're just opening the discharge side, you don't even have to close the valve. Pour some OdorLos in the head, flush it twice and take the pump apart. Just loosen the discharge hose and let anything in the hose run into a bucket. Then remove the 6 small bolts from the big end of the big cone and pull it off. You'll see the macerator T sticking out of the end of the rubber stator and that's where stuff usually gets wrapped. Look down in between the spiril rotor and the rubber stator to see if that's clear.

If you have to remove the stator, you have to pull the rotor out first, since the stator won't fit over the macerator T. To remove the rotor, you have to ht the macerator T on the top of the T with a hammer (Yeah... just hit it) and this compresses the special threads of the rotor and motor drive and breaks loose any stuff in those threads so that you can unscrew the rotor. Hopefully you won't have to take the intake side apart to hold the shaft while you unscrew the rotor. They usually unscrew OK after being whacked once.
This is the procedure for replacing the rubber stator too. The T is supposed to stay screwed onto the rotor permanently. It's a left hand thread and it has been peened after it was screwed on.

Doug Shuman

[thoward]

I took pics of part of the process but got sidetracked by my helper Crown. Here you go, not the greatest but may give you an idea.
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb123/knottymaid/crapper006.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb123/knottymaid/crapper005.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb123/knottymaid/crapper004.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb123/knottymaid/crapper003.jpg

[thoward]

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb123/knottymaid/crapper002.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb123/knottymaid/crapper001.jpg

[spincycle]

does not look like fun, but I will have to do this, for the same head is still not giving me the old, motor sound and a good flush. I did get the holding tank pumped out but no change in that particular head. it still bubbles and everything.

Spincycle

[Brian Degulis]

does not look like fun, but I will have to do this, for the same head is still not giving me the old, motor sound and a good flush. I did get the holding tank pumped out but no change in that particular head. it still bubbles and everything.

Spincycle

Why don't you get a quote from Raz Marine in Lauderdale on an exchange or to rebuild yours?

Brian

[luckydave215]

When I got my boat, two of the heads were acting up, and the pumps were old anyway.
I bought factory rebuilds, they weren't very expensive with core exchange, and just changed them out. They work perfectly.
Best of all, my local chandelry (San Diego Marine Exchange, they're excellent by the way) had them on the shelf...in 32V no less!

[SKYCHENEY]

Why don't you get a quote from Raz Marine in Lauderdale on an exchange or to rebuild yours?

Brian

Or.....you could just tear it out and put a nice new Raritan Atlantes in. :)



I'm not saying that the GM stuff is inferior. It's well built, heavy equipment that was made to last. In fact, it's some of the only equipment that is worth rebuilding. My point is just that if you might be thinking of updating soon, now would be a good time to try out one of the Atlantes toilets. If you like it, then you do the other heads at a later date. Just a thought.

[Brian Degulis]

Well I'll say it the Galley maid stuff is well made but it's inferior to lots of other choices because they simply don't work very well. To many glitches use a bleeder no don't get an air vent no don't the bowl floods under way put in a check valve no don't. Yeah nice heavy duty stuff that doesn't work very well.

Brian