Hit it with a hammer. Hit it with a hammer.

EDITOR’S NOTE: DnR (Donn Friedman and Rebeca Zimmermann) are not experts at fixing things, overlanding or travel. We don’t travel far from the car. Take anything published here as entertaining, but not definitive. Check with your RV dealer or overland experts or mechanic before attempting anything you read about us doing.

Some things can’t be fixed or even temporarily repaired with duct tape.

It is now spring and that means it’s time to unwinterize. And invariably my water systems spring a leak or just don’t pump from the 20 gallon water tank under the passenger seat to the sink in the back.

For the most part, this water is used for cleaning up or for cooking. This season we didn’t winterize and took a bet all would be fine when the warm winds began to blow.

Wrong again.

The hope was that water would come flowing out when turning on the power to the pump while at the same time opening the faucet.

Luckily, there was not water, water everywhere — one of the worst things that can happen when you first turn on your water system in the spring.

Instead, there was sputtering of a bit of air and water followed by the sad whine of the pump. Rigs often have the water pump in hard to reach places, and ours is no different. Clearing out the floor junk and winter water bottles and propping the seat up with a splintery two-by-four was required just to see what was going on.

This was at a three-arm job. After wrestling with screwdrivers and wrenches, a trusty partner was called to action as tool fetcher, screw holder and YouTube searcher.

She dug into YouTube, the ultimate source of all RVing information, and found videos on troubleshooting Shurflo water pumps.

Next, the search was on for our Step 22 Pangolin tool roll, an amazing toolbox replacement won in a giveaway at Overland West in Flagstaff more than five years and many adventures ago. With that in hand, the trusty assistant took over an inventory of tools, handing what was needed to reach the inner workings of the pump.

The first thing to try was to “prime the pump,” which consists of removing the filter and adding a bit of water to restore a vacuum seal. The past two years, this was all it took to have water reaching our simple sink system, but this time it still wasn’t working. It was apparent through observation and rewatching YouTube instructional videos that the pump was properly primed as suction was present. The next step included detaching the pump and watching more YouTube videos.

Hit it with a hammer

The four screws that held the pump in place had to be removed and the electrical connections disconnected in order to disassemble it. After gently tapping the bottom of the water pump to dislodge any sediment, the pump sucked in from the holding tank but nothing came out the other end.

After removing six screws to get inside, the pump was cleared of grunge, rust and scale. The YouTuber said: hit it with a hammer.

So we hit it with a hammer on the bottom, but the valve was still stuck closed.

At this point, with a mostly full water tank and open hoses going into a small plastic bucket, the realization came: the pump was either toast and needed to be replaced or it needed more help than just cleaning.

Knowing that was freeing.

Hit it with a hammer, again

With a bigger hammer, I swung back like Paul Bunyan and pounded the golden spike into the top of the valve. Voilà! The valve popped open.

Fighting to put all the parts back together and hooking the pump back up took another 15 minutes.

It would’ve been useful to have the correct tools, including an electronic screwdriver, rather than using all stripped out tools from discount stores. My partner and soulmate turned on the power to the pump and the faucet at the same time to create a few more sparks and the power cables fluttered under the seat. Soon all connections were reattached and the system powered up.

Slowly, slowly, slowly water sputtered from the sink and the water system was up and running.

So beware Ora, next time you roll in cow pies — the wet, stinky ones you like best — the faucet and Dawn soap will be ready to get you dog-fresh and clean.