- Initially, we believed the shower drain and pump worked fine. Maybe it did.
- I had a transom zinc installed.
- I grounded the transom zinc to a few places.
- Next time I tried the shower drain pump, it didn't work. Running slow, kept tripping the breaker.
- I noodled on it, and assumed (correctly) that one of my transom zinc groundings was to an inappropriate location, causing the pump issue. Relocating the ground wire solved the problem.
- However, in the course of this, I bumped the pump and broke off both of the 40-year-old brittle inlet fittings.
- So after a trip to the marine store for new fittings, I proceeded to install them. Success!
- Oh, but next time we used the shower, water was cascading out of the drain into the bilge. No!! Turns out in the process of replacing the pump fittings, I pulled too hard (not very hard at all) on the drain hose and it pulled loose the severely corroded and split shower drain hose collar.
- No problem, can just replace the drain. But no, there is absolutely positively no access to the underside of the drain pan to accomplish this seemingly straightforward task.
- Fast forward a year, while I procrastinated and noodled on the problem.
After much deliberation and research, I settled on the following:
- Purchased a Valterra drain elbow, used in RVs. This was necessary because there was only about 4" of clearance from the shower drain hole to the hull.
- Tore out the old drain, from the top. What a pain.
- Cleaned everything up.
- Ran a new hose from the pump to the pan.
- Installed the Valterra fitting on a standard flush mount sink drain.
- UV4000'd four teak backing blocks to the underside of the pan.
- Drilled some holes in the pan and the drain (remember, I have to install from the top).
- Connected the hose to the drain fitting.
- Glooped on UV4000 and screwed down moderately tight.
- Waited overnight, and screwed down tight (to the teak blocks remember).
- Leak test, and it worked!!
So, I now have a working shower again. Finally. :-)
