John V

Happy Hoppy Burfday !!! C.R.

Hmm! I'm afraid my attitude would be.....it's a towpath.....tough!

Because it is on a short timer, allowing for a bit of resistance in the cabling/connections it probably wasn't long enough to operate the normal type of thermal fuse/trip

About a year or so ago I had trouble with limescale with my Tecma toilet ........ but it wasn't in the toilet itself but the pipe from the pump to the tank (about 5 metres long) this 1 3/4 inch solid pipe actually was solid .....or nearly. The hole down the centre was down to about the diameter of a pencil. .... and there was me wondering if the pump was wearing out . When replacing it I followed the advice of Phil Ambrose who recommended flexible pipe and the occasional attack with an anti scale rubber mallet

You are correct, there is no way you can access the working parts of the motor with it in situ. If the motor sparks but doesn't run I would suggest that something jamming the blades is a strong possibility. You have to remove the large bore rubber pipes off the pump assembly before you can see the pump vanes, you should be able to rotate the impeller with a large screwdriver or the like but be careful, the impeller blades are rigid plastic and will break rather than bend. If they won't move then you can get into it by undoing the ring of screws round the body. If it is not something seizing the pump then it has to be the motor, and I can't be any help there as I have never attempted to take one apart. If you are going to have to get the motor out then you will find it easier if you can unmount the ceramic bowl and rotate it so you can get inside it properly, it is quite a tight squeeze to get all the rubber pipes in and out and you need to make quite sure you know how they fitted in, otherwise you will struggle for ages to make it all fit properly afterwards. I would advise you carefully descale and clean the pipework while you have it in bits, it's a horrible job but at least you can get it all done in one hit. If yours is the model with the small bore pipe between two sections of the large bore rubber pipe (older models) then pay particular attention to cleaning this as it is the most prone to block part (not the fault this time.....with that blockage the pump runs but doesn't pump away because of an airlock) good luck.........(incidentally I can thoroughly recommend "Oust 3 in 1" as a good spray to keep the pong down) John

Yoo hooo Bettie.......glad to see you posting again......you've been missed

The motor of my Tecma has been in use for 7 years (heavy use, two people liveaboard) the previous motor was in use for 3 years and was changed due to damage of the pump blades caused by a foreign object (scent sample bottle) neither have given any problem electrically or due to normal wear and tear. so unless your pump has been in use for a long time it might be worth carefully checking everything else first. The wiring loom with my toilet has an inline fuse carrier between the control box and the pump if yours has ...obvious first check. Put a test meter on the motor and check it actually gets 12v when at that point of the cycle. (or unplug the double lucas connector that connects the pump and replace the pump with a 12v lamp. If this fails to light and you can hear the click of the relay that should operate the pump then that checks out the electronics. and would suggest the relay contacts have failed........if you know someone with a small soldering iron and some experience with electronics this can be replaced fairly simply. (If you know what you are doing) and alternative replacement relays are readily available. If the lamp does light then it's the motor . If there is no click corresponding to the point when the main macerator pump should operate then that would suggest a fault in the controls with very little other choice than replacing the unit.

I've been talking about that for about 15 years.....by the time I get round to it I will be past riding a motorbike, I'm going to need it to be a mobility scooter instead

special plantfood perhaps ?

I have always had a soft spot for both Stortford and Sawbridgeworth, my stamping ground for many years

I wonder if it would be possible to breed a dwarf variety specially for boaters

I think that is putting a slant on my post that wasn't there......that's what I meant by every few weeks.....generally you will be near a spot with good public transport links within that kind of time scale, so you go and collect your car and off you trot on a big shopping trip......coal or logs, gas bottles, petrol for the generator, maybe drums of diesel for the boat,big grocery shop from a big supermarket, cases of beer, bottles of wine and all the other paraphernalia without which life on the cut is not complete Oh my....I just saw that after I posted.....brilliant Ray.

Laplander icebreaker by mudlarker2, on Flickr