Hi. Today on Repairs101 weíre going to fix a very common problem in the bathroom. Weíve
got a real dripper on our hands. Take these apart, show you whatís inside but of course
first a quick trip to the basement to find the valves to shut off the water. OK as you
can see these old valves are quite sticky. Weíll just turn this one down as well. And
while weíre here do a quick inspection and we can see weíre in trouble ñ thereís some
kind of rust pattern forming here on the paint indicating that this elbow needs to be replaced.
OK weíve been down to spider-land and back and the waterís still gurgling but weíll
just release the pressure and see if that doesnít Ö OK these are wide open and thereís
still a little gurgle going on so what that indicates to me is that those valves downstairs
arenít doing their job anymore either. OK well you saw me turn off the valves that supply
these valves with water. But what you didnít see is that those valves leaked so these valves
were still leaking so I had to go to the valves that control those valves andÖ so this is
a pretty old house, it was built in nineteen-forty and it seems all the valves
are all dried out and I had to turn off the water to the house.
OK weíll just start by popping off these covers giving us access to the inside. OK
so just take a regular screwdriver and pop it off. Look inside: Phillips head screwdriver.
So Iím just going to unwind these, get the handles off. Oh thatís tight. OK, I heard
it crack, thatís satisfying. Now as you can see we can access the valve stem bodies.
So I had to go into my socket wrench set and get a three quarter inch deep socket. And
out she comes. And there you go. Focus? Oh yeah. What a mess, eh? OK you can see that
that bushing is just about shredded. So no wonder it wasnít holding water anymore. Now
Iíll get the hot one out as well and Iíll show you how to rebuild them.
You see they come out real easy when you have the right tools.
OK this one is all but annihilated as you can see the metal is starting to erode and
thereís virtually no rubber left there at all.
OK so Iím just going to feel around very gently ñ try not to cut myself ñ and see
if I can see any reason why these bushings are self-destructing or if theyíre just gone
because of age. I can feel the valve seat with my fingertip and it does not feel particularly
sharp so Iím going to guess that those were just really old bushings. Letís try the other
one. OK weíre going to gently probe around in here a little bit. Again, I donít feel
anything particularly sharp but you can see the blackness on my fingertip, thatís the
bushing deteriorated and making a deposit inside here.
OK Iím going to film right here over the sink because it really is the best lighting
and the best background. But if youíre going to do something over the sink ñ make sure
you put the plug in because you really donít want to lose any parts down there.
First thing is weíre going to undo that screw and pull off the bushing.
You can see it comes out easy and the bushing is all but destroyed. Just in comparison,
thatís our bushing that just came out, you can see the big crack in it. And thatís what
a new bushing looks like. So Iíll just take the other one and also take that screw out
and that bushing off. This bushing is in a little bit better shape than the first one.
Anyway, off comes the screw, there you go, whoops. Out came the screw and there you go.
Thereís the bushing, itís in a lot better shape than this one. Pull the screw out of
it. As you can see, thatís our pair of bushings. Itís in a lot better shape than its brother.
We take our little dome shaped bushing, on the back it says quarter inch. So we just
drop it in with the tapered side facing against the seat that itís going to seal. And you
simply install the retaining screw back in. Piece of cake.
Just do that down snug and weíre done. OK so weíll just rebuild the other one, snap
it all back together and weíll turn the water on and see if it doesnít leak.
OK Iíve got my valve stems rebuilt and Iím ready to drop them back in. OK those are both
down and Iím just going to snug the valve stems into the valve bodies but I have to
be very careful of course itís only brass. So Iím choking up on the socket wrench like
this in order to limit the amount of torque I can put on it.
The handle sits on this splined end of the valve stem and thereís a female splined plastic
piece on the inside of the handle to receive it. So you just need to line it up and it
pops right into place, as you heard, and then we go back in with that old screw and just
wind it in. You know youíre tight when the handle starts turning with the screw. OK so
thatís nice and tight and just nice and easy there I can feel the nice seal with the new
rubber. Now you donít want to overdo it because thatís what shredding up these seals in the
first place. So Iíll move over to the hot sideÖ
OK the waterís back on. And hot. Hot water coming out already.
As you can see and hear, our drip is fixed. OK so with just a little bit of my time, the
right tools and a couple of these very inexpensive bushings ñ problem is solved. I was able
to do something that would have otherwise cost a couple of hundred dollars to have somebody
else come in and do. And that, of course, is the whole point behind
this website: to help you do these kinds of repairs, save yourself some money, save the
environment by not having to throw things out, by repairing them, by getting more use
out of them. Now I can address this rust stain at the bottom
of the tub as well as this little cement spot here where the paint didnít stick.