Toilet supply stem replacement problem.

Plumbing Forums

Help Support Plumbing Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

spiget1

Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2024
Messages
5
Reaction score
1
Location
Horrible Place
My toilet supply stem is leaking as shown below.

I tried to follow the below video, but
the step "Loosen the outer hex nut, and remove it"
is not working because the outer nut will not break
loose. If I try to put a wrench on the inner
nut and torque counter-clockwise on the
outer nut with a wrench, the inner-nut just
LOOSENS UP. I tried putting a pipe wrench
on the section between the two nuts and
then torquing counter-clockwise on the
outer nut, but so far it is not budging
loose. Do I actually need to put an impact
wrench on this outer nut while holding with
the pipe wrench ?


https://imgdump5.novarata.net/dshawr.jpg
dshawr.jpg


 
Since "Awaiting for approval before being displayed publicly", I had to take risks. The below is what ended up happening,
in case it might be useful to someone else who runs into the same setup with the same problem.

Thanks for all the help, mod's.

1.Turn water off in the basement.
1.5.Turn the toilet valve supply closed.
2.Flush toilet.
3.Use phillips screw driver to remove the oval-shaped
handle.
4.Loosen the outer hex nut, and remove it.
5.With plyers, break loose the stem and remove the
stem by hand.
6.Push the new stem in by hand and turn it clockwise.
7.Put rubber black washer inside the nut. And then
put the white washer inside the nut.
8.Tighten nut.
9.Put handle back on.


HINTS AFTER A VERY LONG FIGHT:
1.The outer nut is going to be very-hard corroded onto the middle piece. It is
best to use an open-ended 17mm box wrench and remove the upper nut that connects
the bowl-hose to the line. Then, remove the middle and outer parts out as one
assembly, and then apply wd-40, knocker-loose, and a bunch of whacks with a rubber
hammer in the garage to try to get the outer nut to break loose from the middle
part.

2.For re-assembly, it's best to use the locking vise-grip plyers on the outer nut
and the large-monkey-wrench on the middle part to get the outer nut to tighten onto
the middle part. Once it is tight enough, the leak will stop. One problem I
ran into is that I was putting the large-monkey-wrench on the inner nut and torquing
on the outer nut, which was causing the middle to move relative to the inner nut,
instead of causing the outer nut to tighten onto the middle part.

3.In the future, a better plan is probably to take the entire middle/outer assembly
to Home Depot and replace that whole thing, because there is no guarantee you will
be able to bust the outer nut off of the middle part -- too much corrosion.
 
Back
Top