My bathtub has a lever that you move up and down to either hold the water in the tub or drain it out. This lever has quit working properly. I have to hold it down in order to drain the tub where before I could just move it to the down position and it would drain the tub. How could I go about fixing this?

thank you for any responce.

 

What your describing is a trip and waste overflow drain kit.


There is usually 2 screws that hold this overflow plate on.

When you remove this plate, there will be brass linkage to either a brass or plastic cylinder that is hollow that blocks the pathway to the tee that serves the drain shoe.


It sounds like the linkage has lost its adjustment.


I am not really fond of these devices; I always use lift-n-turn or foot-lock stops. Trip and waste have a tendency to get hair clogs on the linkage or cylinder which when forced, can break and cause major problems.


Be extremely careful in removal of the linkage; it will be some tricky maneuvering to get the linkage to pull from the overflow tube, but be patient. If it went in, it will come out. Check for the shape of brass linkage, clean and reinstall, making sure all stop nuts are tight so that linkage will not loosen again. It might take several attempts to adjust linkage either up or down to find the setting that evenly blocks the flow of drain tee on assembly.

 

You are right that there are two screws holding a plate on the tub. The tub is fitted right up to a wall and there is no access to the back since I had the central A/C blower unit installed in that closet. This house was built in 1972.

Could any repair be done through the small hole under the plate with two screws?

 

Without removing the overflow plate? No.


The plate has to be removed in order to work on this problem.


And be careful when pulling this linkage out; movement of the overflow can offset the rubber piece that seals the oveflow to the back of the tub, or the connection at the top of the drain tee.

 

Thanks

We lived in Edgewood for two years in the 70's.

 

Great area. I do a good deal of service work in the area.


There was a builder that was in that area, The Erpenbecks; probably the father of the company.


When his 2 sons took over in the past 17 years, it went belly up, took down a huge bank, $30 million dollars and around 200 unfinished properties, and about 100 homeowners lost thier homes because the notes to the homes were not released from the construction loans at the time of sale.


It went straight into someone elses pocket.

Unkind light on edgewood when this happened last year. If you live in florida, that is where he took off to when the contractors went after him.


RUN BILL RUN!