Replacing a seat??

Hello,

I have a question about replacing seats on the hot and cold water for my bathtub. I have tried replacing the rubber washers already but both of them still leak. The brand is American Standard, and it is very possible this could be the original stems from when the house was built in the 1920's. When I brought the stems in to the hardware store to make sure I got the right washer the guy there said he had never seen a stem quite like the one I had. I hate when I hear those words as it usually means a lot of time and money. Anyway, since the faucet still leaks, is the next step to replace the seats? The stems themselves seem fine. How do I get the seats out? Does every system have a seat? Some additional information, we recently had the shower converter? replaced, and the person who did it said that our faucet and hot and cold water valves are connected by a straight piece of pipe. The hot and cold water lines go up the back of the tub/shower, each has a T connection going to the tub faucet and then to the shower converter. Apparently new ones aren't this way??? Any information anyone can offer would be most appreciated!

Thanks,
Martin

seats

That was a common way to assemble a 4 valve system in those days, and there is nothing "unusual" about it. As for the stems and seats, American Standard had removable seats even then, for most of their faucets. In fact some might even have had the "large" Re-Nu barrels, again nothing really unusual, you would just have to find a better supply source.

thanks and...

HJ,

Thanks for that, it makes me feel a little better. Can you tell me how to remove a seat?

Martin

thats simple. they sell a seat wrench that simply fits into the seat and helps you in unscrewing it. once its out you put the new seat on the wrench and work it in there. its a very cheap tool and it comes in very handy as i have used mine to change my seats my friends seats and my familys seats. once you fix it tell no one!

faucet

A picture of your stem would help, because if it is a "Re-Nu" unit that is the seat and sometimes it has to be replaced because its "brass to brass" seal can be a "one and done" situation unless you have the modern ones with ""O" ring external seals.