I had a plunger style stopper that needed replaced so I went to lowes and got one that looked right and I installed it...Now...I have a slow leak in the tub..did I install this stopper incorectly

 

The drain should be installed with a rubber gasket bellow the tub and plumbers putty between the tub surface and the drain.

skipping either of these seals can (will) cause leaks. The more water in the tub, the worse the leaking.

 

Plumbers putty

Use enough so that it squeezes out when turning it in.

 

But I didnt change the drain..I changed the lever-plunger assembly..what gives?

 

Nothing like a stab a year and a half late.

If, by plunger, you mean a "bucket" that hangs in the overflow/waste assembly (e.g. Price Pfister series 90, part 972-711) and your slow leak is into the sewer rather than the woodwork, you may be seeing what I just ran into.

I bought a new Danco tripwaste assembly with bucket for a 25 year old brass trip lever type waste & overflow. The tub slowly drained with the bucket in teh stop position (bucket down, lever up). I pulled the lever and let the bucket down until it stopped (with safety string). Same problem. I tried same with the old bucket. No leaking. I compared both buckets. New Danco bucket is almost 1/8" shorter than old one. New bucket has champferred lower edge; old one is almost flat.

Price-Pfister says they have not changed the drain in the last 25 years. They do have a different assembly for plastic drains, but I am not sure what the differences are. Since I can still use the old one, I am done with that part of the tub problem.

 

How come you didn't just adjust the linkage to make cylinder drop down enough to block shoe?


I quit installing these years ago. Nothing but headaches in the plumbing business.

I just put in half-kits. Use sch40 pvc and fittings and I give the customer's the choice of a foot-lok stop or lift-n-turn assembly.

Less problems.

 

I like the lift and turn type, the tip-toe type seems to collect hair balls too fast.

 

Dunbar wrote: I must not have been clear. My point was that there was no adjustment that effectively blocked the drain. I even removed the lever and dropped the new bucket down to the stop -- it still leaked. When I gradually lifted the bucket it drained more.

I am a homeowner learning as I go. I have no experience with this type drain other than the problem one that I have in my bathroom. When an initial cleanout didn't work, I went down to the hardware store. I figured whatever they sold for replacement parts were the things most likely to have failed. I now believe that my original problem was crud in the waste tee that I have dislodged with my messing around.

I am guessing that either Danco shipped a bad part or something in the waste tee geometry has changed in the last 25 years. I am also guessing that the problem is the chamfered edge at the bottom of the bucket. My reasoning is that some water would have remained in the tub if the leak was over the top of the bucket.

I still don't have a complete understanding of how the bucket works. I can reason that the bottom of the bucket hits a stop to form a seal. I can't understand how the sides of the bucket form a sufficient seal to prevent water from being pushed up between the bucket and the tee until it overflows the top of the bucket. If the sides sealed that well, how is the bucket free enough to drop with just the pull of gravity?

 

Precision metal work is all I can say.

 

Ahhh I see now. I would agree that only OEM parts are the way to go.

You have to watch Danco parts. When I was a plumbing pro at Lowe's years back the materials would come shipped broken all the time like index caps and the replacement seat cups for Delta faucets were too big to fit into the openings.


I still use them but in limited items.


I thought for sure in your situation that there was adjustment linkage to make it work up or down if the overflow had adjustment on height from shoe to overflow.

 

We may be dealing with a red herring here. It's possible that the water is leaking into the woodwork after all. If it were me, I think I would put some silicone on the gap between the drain and the tub and see if this stops the leak If it does, then the water is not going down the drain after all.

Robert

 

I've tried making a few adjustments to "lower the bucket"..it still has a slow leak..what should I do? I dont really follow the long posts very well..I'm quite a novice

 

bales,

This is a home-owner's advice. Some more experienced person here -- who has actually worked on 2 of these -- might offer corrections or a better way of proceeding.

First: Let's make sure that we are both talking the same thing. I am assuming that you have no leaks where the water is showing up outside the drain pipes. I am assuming that your only problem is that you cannot prevent the tub from draining. I am also assuming that you have the same drain assembly as the PricePfister Series 19 in brass -- go to their web site and look at the parts explosion if you are not sure: http://www.pricepfister.com/website/...neous-2Rev.pdf. I will use the names in the explosion.

Second: My guess is that the replacement part sucks. I looked at Danco parts after I had my problem and found significant differences in how the bottom of the tripwaste bucket was finished. Also, mine didn't work and the original part did.


To test:

1) Remove the Overflow Plate Assembly and Tripwaste assembly. Pull the cotter pin (clevis pin?) to disconnect the Overflow plate from the tripwaste clevis.

2) Run a sturdy and flexible wire through the holes in the tripwaste clevis. Twist the wire around itself a bit to make sure that you cannot pull it off the clevis.

3) Put the tripwaste assembly back into the overflow drain tube and lower it until it stops. The top of the clevis should just be visible inside the overflow tube. Make sure that the wire is not going to disappear down the tube.

4) Put about 2" of water into the tub and measure depth. Listen for water draining or dripping down the waste tube.

5) Have a beer or go to church -- your choice.

6) Check water level. If it is the same, your tripwaste assembly and waste tee are OK, you just need to adjust the tripwaste rod.

7) If you are losing water, I don't think there will be a right adjustment. In this case you either need to get someone in who knows what he/she (well, I am in Calfornia) is doing and can fix it right. As an alternative you can go to a GOOD plumbing supply store and get the correct OEM part for your waste assembly.


To adjust:

8) Pull the wire & tripwaste assembly out fo the overflow pipe and reconnect the tripwaste to the overflow plate lever. Make sure that the tripwaste is in the down position.

9) Slowly put the whole thing in postion and try to hear/feel the bucket hit the stop when you do. If you don't hear feel it, keep lengthening the rod adjustment by 1/4" until you do. Put the plate in place (you may have to screw it in to get it at the right hight). Close the drain. Make sure the water stays in the tub. If it does not, lengthen the rod in 1/4" increments until it does. Slowly open it the drain until you hear water draining. If you moved the lever more than 1/4" you may need to shorten the tripwaste rod. Make sure you tighten the locknut against the clevis once you get the right length.

10) Repeat step 5.

Good luck,

Joe

 

If all else fails you can eliminate the bucket type of stopper and put in a lift and turn or tip toe type on stopper in the drain part of the tub.

 

lift and turn??? tip toe???

 

This is what the tip toe drain looks like.

Comes in chrome also.

The neat thing is you don't even have to replace the entire waste and overflow assembly, you only have to unscrew the drain out of the bottom of the tub, clean up old putty, apply new putty on this tip toe bottom side, then tighten it up in the place you removed the old drain on the tub, then remove the bucket and just install a new face plate.

 

OK I got a tip toe ..seemed like the way to go,however,I go to screw the new item into the old drain under the tub and it'll only turn like three times and wont go any further!!!!What gives?

 

Make sure it is going in straignt, sounds like it's trying to cross thread on you.

 

I tried like 15 times..could I mess up each time??

 

Check the threads are you in good shape? Try it without putty on it, make sure it's the same thread as the old drain.

 

bales,

Glad Plumber didn't answer your question and gave you an idea on how to accomplish what you really wanted to do instread!

On your threading problem:

1) Don't force anything! You could damage the threads in the waste elbow under the tub.

2) As Plumber said, check the threads on the new drain against the threads on the old drain. Are they the same? I have seen coarse threads and fine threads. You want to make sure that your new one is the same as the old one or you will screw up the "gotta rip everything up to fix it" stuff underneath the tub.

3) I have learned a trick for correctly starting things that are likely to cross-thread. Put the drain in place and push it down until you are sure it is touching the waste elbow. Really try to keep it level. Slowly, slowly turn the drain counter-clockwise while pushing down lightly and keeping it level. You should feel a click and a slight drop at some point in the first turn. At that point start turning clockwise to screw the drain in. That click is the end of the drain thread dropping past the end of the waste elbow thread.

 

That is exactly how I get one started; wait for the click in reverse motion THEN start turning.



That idea works for numerous threaded situations.