Serves me right, I suppose — I felt guilty for not doing anything on such a beautiful Saturday, so about 4PM I decided to replace the seals in the bathroom faucet downstairs. It’s a Valley, about 36 years old, and had a slow drip. I’d had the parts for months and had never gotten around to it. (I did manage, several weeks back, to do the upstairs tub, with identical innards, with little difficulty.)
Well, tried to remove the bonnet and kept unscrewing and unscrewing. It didn’t come off. But it did get looser. I apparently had torn loose the brass insert inside the zinc body and the whole insides were turning.
So now I’ve got to replace the dang thing. But it’s been on there for 36 years. Looking with a mirror (no way to get my head under there) it appears that the faucet is held in place with clips, not nuts. The clips are badly corroded. I can’t tell what they clip to exactly, or see any sort of tang to allow removal.
Anyone ever removed one of these?
I don’t want to remove the vanity top (integral sink/top) becauee it’s tiled up against on two sides.
(Thankfully the stops worked fine, so I’m not under a lot of time pressure. But it’s also “my” bathroom, so I want it working.)
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Well, in an act of contortion that amazed even me, I managed to get my head under there, and saw that there were, indeed, nuts on the studs sticking out. Further mind-boggling contortion allowed me to use a 7/16" deep socket on two long extensions to unthread the nuts. Of course, the nuts were frozen to the studs, but the studs unthreaded themselves from the valve body without putting up much of a fight.
So the damn valve is off. Now to install the new one. We picked up a Delta stainless single-handle unit at HD over the dinner hour. Hopefully it won't put up too much of a fight. Will be using steel braid hoses for the connection.
I'd say that this worked out for the better, despite all that contorting. You'll be much happier without a 36 year old faucet.
Actually, the new one is virtually identical to the old. And I figure if only lasts 15 years, that will be plenty.