Toilet Repairs

Never a dull moment round here....yesterday our toilet decided it had enough and stopped working.  The waste ball valve would not open when I stepped on the flush petal.  That is not good.  We got out the manual, did a little trouble shooting, and decided it was either the waste ball or the drive arm connected to it that was bad.  Now, to find replacement parts.  Billy found an rv parts store in the area and headed over.....unfortunately he came home empty handed.   Did a little more research and found two more rv parts/service centers close to us.  This time I went with him.  The first place could only provide us with a new flange seal.  The second place.....had the rest of what we needed....I said a prayer of "Thanks" to the toilet gods on that one!
Now, comes the really fun part....the actual repair.  One thing I found out....there are parts of a toilet one should never have to see and most certainly should never have to touch!  BUT WE DID!  I'll spare you the "gross" photos........

This is where it all begins.....after we shut off and drain water lines of course.  Billy is removing the toilet.

 Ok, we are ready to take it apart.......one last photo.......

 This is what it looks like before and we are hoping that it is what it looks like when we finish....
Now, what happened next.  I read off the instructions step by step while Billy was the man with the tools.  We had to disconnect almost everything at the back so that we could then remove the bowl from the base.  That gave us access to the waste ball.  This is where it got nasty....they don't call it a waste ball for nothing.  We hung in and removed all the old and scrubbed up everything as best we could.  Yes, I was scrubbing  and yes, we wished we had those gloves that the horse vets use....ya know, the ones that go up to your armpits!  We found it was the waste ball that was broken.  The tab key had broken off into the key way on the drive arm.  Yes, I learned all the technical terms and mumbo jumbo.  

Here is a shot of the completed install....new waste ball and seals.  We managed to get the toilet back together....only had a couple of head scratching moments.  I was glad I had taken those before photos.  We made sure everything was working before we reseated the toilet.  It did!  Again, thankful to the toilet gods!  Put the toilet back into position...turned on the water, and SWISH....we are back in business.  We learned a lot, we both were very proud, and we both hope we NEVER have to do it again.......