Caulk-free shower drain troubles.

I have a leaking shower on the second floor. As far as I can tell it was leaking when we bought the house. It leaks through to the first floor through cracks in the lath & plaster in the ceiling. Not knowing about caulk-free drains I caulked it and surrounded it with plumbers putty. After consulting a plumber friend he explained the caulk-free drain and suggested clearing out the sealants I had added and tightening the locking ring.

I cleared it out and used the tightening tool my plumber friend gave me. Sure enough it needed to be tightened, but I ran into an additional problem. Isn't that always the way, right? The issue is that as I tighten the locking ring the whole drain is now spinning. To me that seems like the bolt beneath the shower floor was not tightened enough. If that's true, is there anyway to tighten it that doesn't entail tearing out the whole shower?

I'm looking for an idea of what I'm up against so any help is appreciated.

You will have to open the ceiling under the shower stall in order to gain
access to no caulk drain.And while you are at it I would replace it with
a brass no caulk drain.

I really like these shower drains...
Many times there just isn't enough room to get the nut tight on that new drain...

Redwood said:

I really like these shower drains...http://www.davke.com/index.htm
Many times there just isn't enough room to get the nut tight on that new drain...

Click to expand...

Now that is to cool,wish they had them when I was still in the field.