Eight more hours invested

We got in about eight hours on the toilet project this weekend and we hope, saw the last of the really difficult task of routing the holding tank hoses under the shower floor to the back of the vanity. With the proper 1-1/2-inch elbows in hand and our trusty heat gun, we were able to connect both the inlet and outlet hoses to the holding tank.  For the inlet that meant making a 90-degree turn and then running the hose through a stringer.  I know this photo looks scary with the dirty bilge and all the loose wiring but we've since cleaned a lot of that up.  We also removed the old bilge pump and float switch.

 

This old pump, a Rule Model 10, actually worked although we found the float switch was loose. We decided to replace them both, since we are going to rehab all of the wiring to the pump and float switch. We ordered a new Johnson 2,200 GPH pump and a new Rule float switch. Just another Christmas present for the boat that no one will ever see but will make us feel a lot better.

After getting the inlet and outlet lines connected to the holding tank, we ran a section of 5/8-inch plastic vent hose from the holding tank, under the floor and connected it to the 5/8-inch through-hull fitting behind the vanity.  Of course, the vent fitting on the holding tank is 1/2-inch NPT, and we thought we had a 1/2-inch thread-to-5/8-inch hose barb fitting but we didn't, so we ordered one of those too.

Our planning is getting better. During the week, while looking at what we'd do this weekend, we noted that we also needed a wire to supply 12 VDC to the toilet and three wires from the tank to the Snake River holding tank gauge. So, before we pulled the vent line in, we taped a short section of 12-volt cable and a section of 4-wire cable that we had in stock to the vent hose. When we pulled the vent hose through, out came our wires with it.

Again, this looks somewhat sloppy but we'll make everything nice and tidy as we make the final plumbing connections back there.

From now on, the order in which we do things is important.  Before we finished connecting the big hoses from the toilet, we needed to mount the syphon-breaker assembly.  That's simply a 12-volt solenoid that opens when the flush button is pushed, allowing water from the boat's cold water lines to enter the toilet.  We mounted the syphon-breaker on a piece of plywood and added the electrical connections and both the inlet and outlet hoses, since doing that after this thing was mounted would be extremely difficult.

Finally, the first hose that will go to the toilet appeared.  The holes were already there from the old gravity toilet. Guess we'll have to cover the small hole in the center since we won't need that one.

Next we installed the foil strips used by the Snake River gauge on the holding tank and wired them to the cable we had fished in earlier.

Before we left, we removed the wood platform that used to hold the maserator, sanded it and applied some paint. It really doesn't serve any use now that the maserator is gone but it does make a good spot to secure the wiring.

The white hose visible in the photo carries cooling water to the air conditioning compressor.  We'll route that out of the way and also get rid of that rat's nest of old wiring.  Luckily, we know where all those wires go.  We'll tackle that next Sunday.  We're taking Christmas day off.