01-04-2007, 04:12 AM
Quote:Augh! I despise those nasty cheap shutoffs that almost always end up leaking instead of actually doing their job! Whenever I take apart the plumbing I replace any shutoffs in the work area with ball valves. The last battle I fought with the Plumbing Gods was a far worse disaster than yours DeeBye. I ended up replacing the toilet after trying a couple of times to fix or replace the guts. I suspect that older toilets work quite well with generic guts, but the <expletive deleted> semi-modern thing in our upstairs bathroom did not.
I'm glad you won your first battle. It gives me hope that some day I too will win.
I don't think the problem with the shutoffs is that they were cheap. In fact, they seem to be pretty high quality brass fittings. They certainly seem beefier than the replacement valves I saw at Home Depot, most of which were made of mostly plastic. They are just old and probably haven't been used in more than 20 years.
I did toilet number 2 today, which was the upstairs toilet. After the main floor toilet, this one is used the most. It suffered from the "jiggly handle" syndrome, in that the flapper wouldn't completely close after being flushed. This caused it to run if you didn't check on it after flushing, which was the case when my son uses it in the middle of the night (curse his tiny toddler bladder :angry:). The mechanisms were also a smattering of old and new parts that didn't fit quite right, so I once again decided to replace everything.
Once again the shutoff valve gave me fits. After turning it off and on again a couple of times, it leaked. I attempted to replace it with something new, but the Home Depot people were once again not quite helpful enough and suggested I just buy a new rubber washer. I liked the fact that a package of washers was only $1, but the washer in my old valve cartridge was not removable. I would have preferred to replace the whole thing, but after some liberal use of teflon tape and a couple hours of swearing I managed to get it down to a small drip every 15 minutes or so. I'm going to replace every crappy shutoff valve in this house as soon as I can, probably with ball valves (thanks for the tip on that). Unless I learn how to effectively solder copper pipe fittings in a hurry, I'll probably call a plumber or lure Herman in with a case of beer.
The toilet gut replacement went fantastically. Everything fit and worked the first time. I certainly learned a lot from my first attempt. Instead of buying separate parts, I bought a complete toilet repair kit for $30 that included absolutely everything I needed including all of the bolts and rubber seals and washers. It even came with a new handle assembly, which I really needed because the old one had a habit of falling off.
I had no leaks whatsoever, except for the very slow and almost unnoticeable drip from the shutoff valve which will be replaced shortly.
What did I learn from all this? Well, for starters it will take you approximately 5 times longer than you think. You will also require the following tools and accessories:
- Adjustable wrench (if you must fiddle with the shutoff valve, you might need two) <>
- Flat head screwdriver <>
- Hacksaw <>
- Adjustable pliers capable of handling a 3" fitting <>
- A million rags <>
- Alcoholic beverages<>
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