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thanks a million! found the breaker. danny took the adder valve assy apart ystdy, cleaned the diaphram, and reassembled.....so far our problems appear SOLVED!!!!!
we're SO glad POG came to buckhorn for their rally. a great bunch of folks and what a wonderful resource. we have a casita up on the hill, so if you're in the area, look us up.
danny and debbie
2001 royale
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Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I just searched this thread for the problem we are having, and I don't see anything related to our issue, so I'll post it here to see what the POG braintrust has to offer. We have 2003 Liberty Lady Classic with the Headhunter Mach 5 water pump. It has been flawless...until yesterday. We used the bus on a trip middle December. Absolutely no issues. I turned off the water pump inside, on the breaker, and ran water out of my water lines through the faucets, as I wanted to reduce the pressure on the lines in preparation for changing the water filters in the plumbing bay. I did not have time to accomplish the filter change before Christmas. Yesterday, I decided I would sanitize the system prior to changing the filters. I filled tank, added the appropriate amount of bleach, then went inside to run the faucets, etc to run the bleach/water through the lines. The water pump came on, but it didn't sound quite right. I thought it was probably taking a minute to bring water into the lines, since they were mainly empty. It ran for a very short while and tripped the breaker. It did this a couple of times after I reset the breaker. I went outside and cleaned the little strainer just before the water inlet, thinking maybe there was an obstruction. No change. I opened the primer top on top of unit to make sure it didn't need to be reprimed. Water came out of this hole, so I assume it it primed. The pump sounds like it has power, but the sound of it is more of a motor trying to run and not the water pump running. The lights on top of the mach 5 show pump is on and power is on. But it has flipped the breaker each time I tried it, and did not pump any water out of any of our faucets.So, I drained and rinsed the tank and refilled it so my bleach water would not sit in there too long. We are hoping to leave Monday or Tuesday for a trip, so if anyone has any great ideas, or ideas I might try, I would greatly appreciate it. Again bus has not moved since pump ran completely normally 2 or 3 weeks ago. Bus is in barn, temp as not been below 40 in barn any of the time, and our bay heater has been on just in case, so there is no chance anything has frozen. What say you??????? Anyone??? Thank you! Deb
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PS, there are no alarm codes on the pump alarm. The breaker that is tripping is on our Liberty Panel, it is not the breaker on the water pump itself.
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Just a wild guess based on your description, it sounds as if the pump impeller may be stuck. As to why it would be stuck I haven't a clue. Could be as simple as a minute piece of debris got stuck.
If it sounds like the motor is trying to turn, but the "pump" portion doesn't seem to want to turn, it may be a stuck impeller. This would also most likely make the breaker trip.
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Thanks, Paul. Based on my experience with swimming pool pumps, a stuck impeller is what I thought it sounded like, but I didn't know if there was an impeller in there or not. Do you know if there is an easy way to get in there to manually try to rotate the impeller? I may go tap on it with something to see if I can dislodge whatever it is. If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks. Deb
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FIRST TURN THE PUMP OFF !
Then look on the end of the pump for a slotted plastic srew/cap.
Open it, then stick a long flat screwdriver in to it. Move the impeller left or right to make it loose.
Should work , flash light will help.
Good Luck,
In case you need a new pump I have 2 used spare ones, I can sell one. I always carry one spare in the basement.
Alek
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3 Attachment(s)
Attachment 7721Attachment 7722Attachment 7723
I agree with Paul. If it is tripping breakers something is putting a big load on the motor like a locked motor. But since I do not have and never had a Headhunter pump I won't try to suggest things.
But the picture above was my preemptive strike against a pump failure screwing up our trip or travel plans.
Some converters use two pumps similar to the one pictured. Assuming they have a way of knowing if one quits they have a back up for pump failure. So I added that little Shurflo so if the primary pump fails for whatever reason, throwing a switch gets me up and running. It is not the size of the primary pump but at least it provides water flow and adequate pressure. We can't shower and flush at the same time, but can do either separately just fine.
It took a couple of hours to install.
A few pieces of tubing and fittings, some flexible hose and a switch and peace of mind.
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Thanks everyone!!! I am VERY pleased to report that the Faires Bus now has water once again!!! Paul, your advice was right on. Alek, your picture is what did the trick. Jon, we have a new sureflo that we carried as a spare on the old bus. Perhaps one day I will get very ambitious and install it as a back up. That is a very smart idea. For anyone who needs to do this in the future on a Liberty, you will find that you only have about 2.5-3 inches clearance between the tank and the cap that Alex described. It is a screw out plastic cap. There is just enough room to stick part of a little flat head screwdriver into the slot. You can get the plastic cap out by moving (not rotating, since there is no room to use screwdriver as a screwdriver) the screwdriver in a counterclockwise direction. With a good mirror and light you can peep back in there to see the slot on the end of the impeller. Once you get the screwdriver in the proper orientation, which was only hard due to the limited space and having to do it by feel instead of sight, it was only a matter of putting a fair amount of force into turning it free. I just rotated it a few times left and right. Went back into the bus, turned the pump on and just like magic, there was water! I ran it for a while to make sure all was free to spin. All seems normal. I just stopped the happy dance long enough to post this post. Thank you again! I know POG would come through. Deb
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Deb,
Congratulations ! Good News ! Nice way to start New Year !
Now, if you have Headhunter RoyalFlush toilet you need big pump to operate. Sureflo alone will not provide pressure that you need it.
That is why I carry spare Headhunter Pump in the basement. The Sureflo will provide water for everything minus the toilet.
Alek
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On my set up with an expansion tank (which was how the coach was built) the Shurflo maintains the water system pressure and the expansion tank delivers a more than adequate flow for the toilet.
If the coach has a Headhunter toilet, but no expansion tank, providing an adequate volume of water at the required pressure might not be possible.
