Author Topic: plumbing help? replaced stems and now no water  (Read 2314 times)

chyckadee

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plumbing help? replaced stems and now no water
« on: October 03, 2017, 08:15:29 PM »
In my retirement I've been taking on deferred home maintenance. So last week I decided to re-caulk the tub and remove the mildew. That was successful and I then noticed a tiny drip from the tub faucet and thought- I'll fix the drip.... famous last words.

We have a 90 year old house. Tub/shower plumbing is at least 50 years old but was working fine save a very small drip. I thought I'd just replace the seats and stems, but it has turned into an odyssey!

This is a sears fixture, and I found the model number 3302048 on the escutcheon - with info on an alternate part on the sears website and took that info to my local plumbing shop. They said these were made by Bradley and are an unusual design.

Stem and seats are attached, no locking nut just a cap with a notch on the stem and a slot on the pipe to hold the stem in place.  After a lot of work just to get the old stuff detached (including a lot of pb blaster and my husbands muscles, I cleaned out the pipes with citric acid and  a wire brush). Last night I was able to use the shower but the stems still spun - they weren't locking in the slot.

Today I went back to plumbing shop and tried to see if there was anything I was missing. They said the notch must go into the slot. (Since I can't get it in, do I try to sand down brass on the top of the stem??) But now today I put it all together and used a screwdriver to hold the stem in as much as possible (while it was cranked open) and screwed the cap on and thought it was all working.... as in the valves seemed to open and close when I turned the handles. but then I turned on the water now no water comes out of the tub faucet. there's plenty of water pressure elsewhere.  I packed plumbers putty into the wall gaps around the pipes... that wouldn't cause a problem would it?

When I turn off the water and disassemble there is water pressure built up in whichever stem I loosen first.  I appreciate any advice! Thanks

trammatic

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Re: plumbing help? replaced stems and now no water
« Reply #1 on: October 04, 2017, 11:04:57 AM »
Do you have a picture of the old one you could post as a reference?  My guess is that the are not the same part, and some part of the new valve is blocking the water flow.

chyckadee

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Re: plumbing help? replaced stems and now no water
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2017, 04:06:32 PM »
Thanks so much for the responses. There were no instructions with the new valve. Its a pretty simple old-school brass valve. Here's the old and new stems side by side in the attached photo. They do look different but the plumbing store said it should work. And it DID work for one night- it was still dripping and the notch was not fitting into the slot, but water came out of the spout and I was able to take a shower.

Today with my husbands' help we got the new stems into the pipe with notches into slot and the cap on, but I only get drips out of the spout no matter the configuration of on and off.

Plumbing store thought maybe some corrosion broke off in this process and is now lodged in the span of the valves between the faucets and the downspout....

I could take off the tub downspout -which given its age and the process with the handles very likely could break in the process. Then I could try to force a hose in there to blast out something. Or I could just say enough and cut open the wall and replace the entire fixture. (not what I was signing up for and I'm afraid of what I'll find).

Any other less drastic suggestions? How big a deal is it to take on replacing tub/shower fixture in a 90 year old house. (I don't know what the pipes are- other than they aren't pex.)

thanks



chyckadee

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Re: plumbing help? replaced stems and now no water
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2017, 07:30:14 PM »
Removed the tub spout now. It was actually and oddly easy to twist off. It is also the only part that had been replaced in recent (as in the last 25) years, since it has some plastic components.

We even just tried putting the old stem back in and got nothing (where before it worked fine and just dripped a little). So I think something must have come loose with all the effort to get stuff disconnected and now its be completely blocking the valve itself.

With the stems removed water pours out of the faucet holes, but nothing comes out the tub pipe. The water pressure on the cold side is more than on the hot side, but both have water pressure (with no stems).

I really wasn't planning to learn soldering...