[77newell]

As luck would have it I was into my water bay today and took one of those valves apart on my 93 coach. Under the nut are two washers, one metal looking and one rubber looking. They keep the water from leaking out the stem and from the threads on the nut. The rubber washer is plain and there is little to keep water from creeping out the stem other then when the nut is tight and the handle is turned in the open valve direction until snug. I suspect the stem backing out puts pressure on the washer to enhance the sealing. I did have to snug down the nuts pretty tight as well. Since the stem is threaded into the body it is possible to take the nut off without getting wet if the valve is closed.

So why was I whiling away the afternoon disassembling my water bay you ask? Well, during a just completed trip I tried to hook a hose up to the "hose barb" faucet in the water bay but could get no water to flow. The shutoff valve was open, the faucet was open, and a short bit of pipe and a few fittings were all there was between the two. Something in the piping was blocking the flow. It turns out one of those fittings was a backflow preventer that was installed backwards. Backwards backflow is no flow at all. Judging by the dope on the pipe threads I'm guessing the preventer was installed backwards at the factory and the "hose barb" faucet never worked right for the past 20 years. Go figure.