Replacing toilet plastic motor shaft

I'm afraid that I misplaced the small plastic coupler that connects the Thetford motor to the pump assembly. When I called Thetford, the guy told me that they didn't sell the plastic piece separately, and a new motor assembly was $260!!! I have to think there's a way to rig up a new shaft to replace the 25-cent part from the factory. It looks like a little piece of PEX tubing... has anyone had to do this before?

[ShrimpBurrito]

Unfortunately, the coupler you lost is a little more complicated than it looks. It is keyed on both ends (has a flat portion in the hole) and the holes are of different diameter. I have no idea where you could find such a beast, but I would certainly try McMaster Carr.

Someone has got to reign in Thetford a bit on selling spare parts in assemblies. I'm far from an expert in trade laws, but I would not be surprised if their practices was illegal. Many companies, car and printer manufacturers I know for certain, must sell spare parts on the open market for a certain period of time after manufacturing ceases, and do so at "reasonable" prices. I think with printers it is 7 years (in terms of ink/toner cartridges). And I would not be surprised if such laws curtailed the kind of upselling Thetford practices. Could you imagine going to the dealer and asking for an oil filter, and you find it only comes with the mounting bracket and the oil pan? A bit of an unfair comparison because there are so many aftermarket products, but I think this points to the ludicrousness of this concept.

This has happened many times on this board with Thetford for various parts. For some time, and perhaps it's still the case, you could not buy the vinyl skirt without the hole bowl assembly. I had a seat hinge break on mine, what should be a $3-$5 part, and was told I had to buy the whole top cover assembly for ~$200.

I have seen a letter to the editor in Good Sam magazine about the vinyl skirt, and Good Sam intervened and Thetford sold them the skirt. So that's one potential avenue for you, but unfortunately that might only work for you and only that one time. Here is a link to the letter and resolution. I'm not sure if the vinyl skirt is still available separately or not.....it seems to be it goes in waves. Sometimes it's a separate part, sometimes it's part of an assembly -- this "seasonal availability" is even demonstrated in the letter.

You might also check out some vendors overseas.....for some reason they seem to have better luck getting parts.

And it's not even like the Thetford is such an amazing product. It's not. It has loads of flaws, and this selling practice would give anyone seeking spare parts a good reason to go find an alternative toilet. But oh wait, there are no alternatives.

Any attorneys out there familiar with commerce law enough to shed some light on the issue?

Dave

[wbmiller3]

How much is a new toilet? I'm seeing it would cost $1000 to build it out of parts!!

[ShrimpBurrito]

The retail for ~$500-$600. Rather pricey considering:

1) it's a bucket with a motor; and
2) you can buy conventional RV/marine toilets for $150-$250.

Clearly, they take advantage of their market share with the Electra Magic.

Dave

[Speckul8r]

Know any machinists? Do you have a drill press and tap set? Brass rod drilled out to the 2 sizes and 2 set screws would possibly work.

Rather than pay $59 for an new valve for the Thetford, I bought the big Fiamma Bi Pot 39 toilet (5.3 gallon waste tank) at JC Whitney for $89 last week. No more smelly toilet either! You just empty out the waste tank at your convenience. Made a nice riser to cover the hole in the floor and raise the height some more.

A conventional marine toilet won't work in the TrailManor, unless you install a black water tank.

[ShrimpBurrito]

Originally Posted by Speckul8r

Brass rod drilled out to the 2 sizes and 2 set screws would possibly work.

A good idea, but it will not work because the shaft part in the toilet is recessed, so there is no way you could tighten a set screw.

Dave

Dave

"It has loads of flaws," nice pun.

Try a Hobby shop you might find a brass coupler with set screws that will fit both shafts. They are used in model boats.

It looks like McMaster Carr has a huge selection of these things; there happens to be an outlet about 20 minutes from me here in the Chicago suburbs. I have a micrometer to measure the width of the motor shaft, but does anyone have an idea of how to get the size of the pump-side of the coupling? thanks

[ShrimpBurrito]

Originally Posted by ShrimpBurrito

A good idea, but it will not work because the shaft part in the toilet is recessed, so there is no way you could tighten a set screw.

Actually, I take that back. If you can countersink the set screw into the shaft, you could tighten it prior to installation with a little Loctite, and drop it in.

I'm not sure how you can accurately measure the lower shaft, aside from having a member here measure the opening of their copy of your missing piece. My TM is inaccessible at the moment, but I'd otherwise do that for you. But to get a rough estimate, you could use a pair of needle nose pliers, close them down on the shaft, and then measure the opening of the pliers with calipers. They buy a bunch of couplers around that size and see which one fits best.

Dave