Old Moen Shower Faucet Stem is Broken

[ianbogue]

TL;DR: An older shower faucet stem is leaking, and the shower won't turn off all the way. What can we do to get it to turn off?

Videos of the issue: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14tL63ksW7176nh5M79gP8cdsryuL6pJO

Here's the story: The house was built in 1965, so original hardware. We've been having some weird problems with this particular bathtub for over a year. It started with not turning off all the way. So a relative came over to fix the problem and lo and behold the inside of the stem (the part that actually moves) had broken off of the outside. The outer "shell" of the stem is stuck inside the valve body. We discovered that when we tried to use Moen's stem removal tool. Anyway, he somehow got it to function "properly." Now in the last week-and-a-half, it has started acting up again. It won't shut off all the way. We are going to get a replacement valve, but it won't be available until Feb 1. What can we do to get it to stay off? We can't be without water for a whole week!

 

[jeffmattero76]

Do you have shutoffs behind the shower? If so, turn them off when not using the shower, and on when you are. Not convienent, but at least you will have water.

 

[ianbogue]

Do you have shutoffs behind the shower? If so, turn them off when not using the shower, and on when you are. Not convienent, but at least you will have water.

Sadly, no. We don’t have shut offs.

 

[jeffmattero76]

You could turn off your water main, and then cut the pipes behind the wall and install shark bite shutoffs. If you have the crimp tool, you could also install pex shutoffs.

 

[ianbogue]

You could turn off your water main, and then cut the pipes behind the wall and install shark bite shutoffs. If you have the crimp tool, you could also install pex shutoffs.

Would those work with copper pipes? Like I said before, the house was built in 1965, so it doesn’t have PEX.

 

[jeffmattero76]

Yes. If you don't have the crimp tool, it would be cheaper to use the shark bite shutoffs. They are more expensive than pex shutoffs, but the pex crimp tool costs around $60.

You can search YouTube for videos, but, essentially, all you have to do is cut the pipe with a pipe cutter, cut out enough copper (usually about 1 inch or so) to be able to push the new valve onto the cut ends. I am not sure it is necessary, but I always sand the copper ends to make them shiny and ckean, and then push on the valve. Simple task for even an inexperienced person.

 

[jeffmattero76]

I should also mention that you must turn off your main water coming into the house, then open your lowest faucet (usually basement laundry tub), and then open the valves in the upstairs floors. That allows air into the pipes so that the water in those pipes will drain down into the laundry tub.

 

[ianbogue]

Update: We got the valve replaced and it works perfectly. We did replace some of the pipes with pex. Here’s our progress so far:

261FEB53-0DCE-4389-962E-577095A4A590

• ianbogue
• Jan 29, 2019

 

[Rickyman]

Oof

 

[ianbogue]

Yeah, I know. It’s not my work, though. It looks bad but it works good.

 

[CT18]

Good spot for an access panel

 

[ianbogue]

I totally agree.