manual toilet 300 sedan 1978

[familycircus]

looking to buy a '78 300 sedanFB. I'm not understanding how the manual toilet works. There in an odor in the stall and also in the bilge area. It has been pumped and not used. But still an odor. What do I look for, is there a potential problem? Thanks for any help.

 

[sbw1]

Not sure which head you have but we had a manual head on our 1979 SR. There was a piston pump in the aft corner by the back end of the unit. There was a little lever by the pump assembly. When you flipped it one way and operated the pump you drew lake water into the bowl. When you flipped it the other way and operated the pump the contents were pumped into a holding tank. Various things can go wrong. The pump assemblies would fail after a season or two and required new rubber, pump rings. Using bleach for cleaning accelerates the failure. Also, the rubber hoses absorb sewer gas odors after a while and require replacement. Take a clean, damp towel and rub the hoses to the head a bit and then sniff the towel. If it smells badly, you are due for a replacement of the hoses. Lake water heads are difficult to keep odor free because they use dirty water for the flushes.

 

[familycircus]

thank you so much. at last a place to start.