[RussWhite]

I'm parked in an area of high humidity, so I decided I better check on the auxiliary air tank. Since I have no manuals or schematics of the air system I am just feeling my way around and may have some bad concepts of how things work. But for now, I think I have a small compressor located on the slide with the generator that makes up air into a small tank located in the front right bay. There seems to be a contactor and pressure switch in there that starts the compressor when the air is too low in the tank. At this time I do not know how much the compressor runs during a day as it is too quiet to hear unless you have the slide out. There is a water separator between the compressor and the check valve going into the tank. The glass bowl on the separator was very cloudy and I really was not sure if there was water in there or not. There is a solenoid vlave on the bottom of the bowl and a hose running down to the floor. I first opened the valve on the bottom of the tank and drained out a quart of water - obviously something I should have done sooner. I deselected the compressor and removed the bowl from the separator. It was full of water. I noted the drain solenoid had a 12vdc coil and then put the bowl back on and applied 12vdc to the solenoid. There was a very quiet click, but no water drained from the bowl. Maybe the compressor should be running pressurizing the bowl for water to be expelled. I am unclear at what time and how that solenoid is energized. Anyone out there with an answer to that?
I did contact Newll parts and found that the assembly or each part alone is still available - as of Feb 2011 THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY IS $171.52 NC-12302 AND THE SOLENOID IS $120.44 IS NC-705290 .
If I cannot get the automatic drain to work I think for now I will just install a generic separator and manually drain the bowl periodically using my Outlook calendar as a reminder. I have attached a picture of the separator. Russ