Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Aluminum replacement for broken T handle on holding tank valve rod

On a recent trip, part of the plastic T handle on my black tank valve rod snapped off while we were dumping the tank.  After a little research, I discovered that the T handle was internally threaded and screws right onto the end of the valve rod -- very convenient!

So I took a piece of half-inch thick aluminum scrap and used a hacksaw to cut a replacement handle.  I then shaped it with a flat file and then cleaned up all of the rough edges with a belt sander.

(I know what you are thinking -- why not just buy a new plastic handle?  I could, but I no longer trust those handles not to break at a crucial moment.  I wanted a heavy duty handle.)

Next, I drilled a 15/64 inch hole in the center of the piece, starting with an eighth inch bit, then a 3/15, and finally a 15/64 bit.  (Don't use a quarter inch bit -- the cutting threads on the tap will have nothing to cut if the hole is too big.)  I then used a quarter-inch 20 pitch tap in order to create internal threads in that hole, to match the threads on the end of the rod.

I screwed the replacement handle onto the rod, holding back on the rod with a vice grips so I could get it very tight.  The end of the threaded part of the rod projected out from the backside of the replacement handle by about 3/8 of an inch.  I put a lock nut onto that little stub and tightened it, so that the new handle will not unscrew from the rod.

Here are two views of the finished product.  This is a three-quarter end view:


And this is a side view:



1 comment:

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