I'm out of Ideas with my vacuflush (hello all it's been a long time!!!)

Pyrojodge

Pyrojodge

Well-Known Member
TECHNICAL Contributor
May 1, 2011
4,248
Lake Erie Ohio
Boat Info
1989 Sea Ray 340 DA
Engines
twin 454 Mercs
Greetings all,

So a month ago my vacuflush started to cycle on every 5 minutes run for aprox 10 seconds and shuts off...

Things tried to date:

  1. New set of duck bills
  2. New pressure switch
  3. New sanitation hoses (some looked deformed and slightly collapsed at turns)
  4. Complete new vacuum pump and another set of duck bills
  5. rechecked and tightened all hose clamps for the system
  6. Crawled around bilge and checked for any sound of a leak (none found)

I have not done the ball and seal in the toilet as it holds water fine no loss there of water...

What would you suggest I look at next... I'm leaning towards the seal kit for the bowl but seems strange because it comes and goes and doesn't leak water???

Thanks as always and hope everyone is doing great!!!
 
Sounds like the seal needs to be changed.
 
dwna1a said:
Sounds like the seal needs to be changed.
Click to expand...
So I was looking on the googler and didn't see that you can loose vacuum without loosing the water... I mean at this point that's the only thing left... Just seeing if anyone else had any ideas Thank you!!!
 
I would think you could lose vacuum and not water if the shaft seals were leaking, I would put a seal kit in the toilet since everything else has been replaced. I had that problem on my brand new Rinker. Seals were leaking and we replaced the toilet on warranty and the problem went away
 
There are several O rings specific to the type of vacuflush generator, that should be changed out and properly greased and installed. Have a look at the blow out view of yours. I have the JW (VG4) pump.
 
On my VG1, the intake nipple for the sanitation hose is molded into the box, unlike later models, where it's now a gasket and an elbow fitting. An over-zealous tightening of the hose clamps collapsed the neck of the intake juuuuust enough to allow a vacuum loss, usually over a period of an hour. That one took months to find.
 
I would cap line at the toilet and see if you hold pressure. My thought at this point are the o rings in the toilet and possibly the main seal, but I am leaning toward the o rings.
 
There are two bowl seals, one black and one white. They and the ball work to seal the bowl. When mine was doing the same issue I called Sealand
 
Welp, capped the toilet hose and problem persists so that rules out the bowl so it's between the hose in the back of the bowl and the vacuum pump... The saga continues... Going to check the new pressure switch (again) as I rebuilt the old one with a new contactor to rule that out...
 
Pyrojodge said:
Welp, capped the toilet hose and problem persists so that rules out the bowl so it's between the hose in the back of the bowl and the vacuum pump... The saga continues... Going to check the new pressure switch (again) as I rebuilt the old one with a new contactor to rule that out...
Click to expand...
Along the same lines, I would cap the system at the pump inlet to isolate whether it's before or after that point.
 
For closure... By blocking off the hoses we found the issue to be between the vacuum generator tank and the vacuflush pump. I removed the pressure switch and found staining under the seal which made me suspicious. I cleaned the sealing surface and the switch and re-assembled and my issue is now resolved... What a PITA... Happy boating!
 
Pyrojodge said:
For closure... By blocking off the hoses we found the issue to be between the vacuum generator tank and the vacuflush pump. I removed the pressure switch and found staining under the seal which made me suspicious. I cleaned the sealing surface and the switch and re-assembled and my issue is now resolved... What a PITA... Happy boating!
Click to expand...

good deal, I've had many issues with the switch sealing into the unit as well. My last boat it had to be positioned just right, if you pushed it in all the way it would leak
 
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