Head Check

[bhstech]

My 86 C-27 (new to me) has a Groco HF head. On Tuesday I closed the seacock water inlet to flush the head. The bowl was dry, the lever was down.
The holding tank was pumped out Saturday and used only a few times.
After motor sailing for 5 hours with little healing. It was too hot to stay around when we got back to port so I went this morning to finish taking the stuff off the boat. Today I looked into the bowl and it was full of some very dirty water (didn't really smell). Seacock still closed. I opened seacock, flushed the head, emptied the bowl and closed the seacock again. I can't get back to the boat until Monday and I suspect that the bowl will be full again even though I closed the seacock.
Is there a check valve stuck? Is the joker valve shot? What do this symptoms of?

[Bash]

Originally Posted by bhstech

Is the joker valve shot?

Yes.

But it's easy to replace.

[sabray]

So you have intake and discharge thru hulls with a y valve? Is the head higher then the holding tank or below? If its lower what us stopping the sludge from coming back home?

[HopCar]

Both the inlet seacock and the inlet valve on the toilet were closed. I think I'd be looking on the discharge side. Does the discharge hose run uphill from the toilet? If so some flush water will be left in the hose. It's the joker valve and the HE-8 weighted flap valve that prevent the water in the hose from getting back in the bowl. That's the first place I'd look.

Practical Sailor recently did a test of joker valves. They said that the Jabsco, Groco and Raritan are all interchangeable. They thought the Jabsco did the best job of sealing because of the three way lip design.
Link: Jabsco Joker Valve 29092-1000

[Airshac]

Check... My head is securely fastened.

[bhstech]

Sorry, been away all weekend. Out in the woods with no cell or internet
I did see the article in PS. Yes, the inlet to the tank is above head. I was thinking it is the joker valve but this problem is intermittent. Sometimes it fills and other times it's fine.
I was left a rebuild kit by the PO. The joker valve is not the one recommended by PS but its probably better that the one in there now.

[bhstech]

So today I finally got around to changing the Joker valve. It didn't seem that bad but I put in a new one. I would have changed all of the gaskets but I would have had to take off the bowl to really get to the rest of them and that is the one gasket that was not in the kit.
At first it seemed to be better. But after 6 hours the bowl was completely full again. Before it took about 3 hours to completely fill.
So what is the deal here? The water that comes back in green and stinky. No one has used the head for nearly 2 weeks. Today I tested by pumping in lake water to flush it and then used used water from the fresh water tank to clean out the bowl. So any water left in the hose from the head to the holding tank should have been relatively clean water. The holding tank is almost empty. I had it pumped out 2 weeks ago and it was only used a few times (urine only) so there couldn't be more than a few gallons in a 18 gal tank.
I'm thinking of putting in a check valve somewhere in the hose from the head to the tank. The joker valves seems to be aptly named.

[bhstech]

Today I went to the boat fully expecting to redo everything I had done yesterday. I bought a 1/8x4 brass nipple and coupling to place in the drain hole on the Groco HF so I could extend the drain over the ledge so I could put a bucket under the drain to catch all of the flow verse most of it.
I pumped the nasty stuff out of the bowl and then poured a bucket of clean water in and pumped it out. When I pump it I get a standing wave in the middle and it sloshed up and down and eventually pumps out. On the second bucket there was a change. The bowl now 'swirled' like a regular toilet. After 3 hours the bowl was still dry. No more backup. I thought I heard a 'click' while pumping the second bucket. I think, maybe, the flapper valve at the bottom of the pump wasn't seating properly and now it is. Does this sound correct?
I would like to wait till haul out to rebuild the head and just get by till October.

[HopCar]

"I think, maybe, the flapper valve at the bottom of the pump wasn't seating properly and now it is. Does this sound correct?"


Could be. The HE-8 flap valve is probably at least as important in preventing back flow to the bowl as the joker valve. Maybe there was something stuck there that was preventing it from seating. If the problem returns, take the pump off the base and see what's going on.