Black water pipe to tank leak

[sohal231]

I have a small leak coming from my black water connection at the tank. I will try to describe what I have. The leak is where the 3" pipe comes out of the tank. It appears to have plumbers putty and then it is clamped. The biggest problem is space to repair it. The shut off valve is only about 3 inches from the tank and after the valve it makes a 180 degree turn. It then has a long straight run to the drain connection. I thought of just cutting the straight run, repair the leak, and then fix the cut pipe. Anyone have this problem before?

[Trudi]

You might try the Mobile Home Repair forum to get an answer to your problem.

[Greg]

I'm going to move this to the repair forum.

Greg

[Greg]

Ok can you give us a little more information?

What type of tank are we working on?
Can you give us a picture or two?

Greg

[dinotoad]

This sounds like a travel trailer rather than a mobile home.

I had the exact problem with my motorhome. The leak was at the rubber connector that is at the base of the black tank. Buy a new rubber connector, in case you need this. In my case I could loosen the connector, work it back on, and then tighten it to fix the leak. I suspect the white stuff is teflon pipe dope rather than plumbers putty. The leak was caused by the lack of support for the black drain pipe. I added support made from plumbers tape (pipe hangers) and have no trouble since.

Your's may be more difficult, but if it is a travel trailer, then you can take apart the black valve to access it. It should have 4 bolts holding it together. Plan on replacing the seals in the valve while it is apart.