Leaking tank bolts

The 4-6 yr old American Standard toilet the previous owners put on was leaking at the bottom. I pulled the toilet to replace the wax seal and that seems to have solved it. However, since I had to pull the tank separately, I decided to replace the tank-to-bowl bolts and tank-to-bowl gasket. And now the new tank-to-bowl bolts are leaking.

I followed the directions on the Plumb Pak package and installed things in this order:

Inside the tank:
Brass Bolt
Metal Washer
Rubber Washer
Bottom of tank:
Nut
On Bowl side of the brass bolt:
Rubber washer against the porcelain
Metal Washer
Wing Nut

In researching this online, there seems to be several different accepted methods/order for the parts. What do you guys suggest? Take the metal washer out from inside the tank? Add a rubber washer to bottom of tank? Other suggestions?

Related follow-up:
After install, the toilet is now running due to a tank to bowl leak. Would leaving an empty tank (ie, dry) in my garage for a week when it was cold out cause the flapper to go bad? I know it's rubber, so the dry and cold might have caused it to shrink or something. I'll swap the flapper to test, but I thought I'd get your insight.

Thank you all for your help!!

The type of rubber tank to bowl washers are important...I have seen some that resemble hard plastic rather than a good grade rubber...this may be part or all of your problem...then again it may be that you did not install what you have right...it is hard for us to know...

I will hit a local plumbing supply store (rather than lowes) for another set of bolts -- hopefully they come w/ better rubber washers. That being said, is the order of my assembly correct? Should I stick another rubber washer in the mix somewhere or remove the metal washer from inside the tank?

thanks

Head of brass bolt,
push on rubber washer
Drop through tank
(No metal washer should be inside the tank)

If you have plenty of washers and nuts,
metal washer on bottom of tank,
Then the nut,
Snug up.



Set tank on bowl,
Metal washer, then nut

pjsammy said:

Inside the tank:
Brass Bolt
Metal Washer
Rubber Washer
Bottom of tank:
Nut

Click to expand...

Wouldn't that metal washer cause a leak from the tank? The brass bolt head is gasketed by the rubber washer. If you add a washer between them you create a bypass channel around the rubber washer (between the bolt head and the washer).

The metal washer is supposed to go between the other side of the bottom of the tank and the nut.

leak

You caused the leak as soon as you put the metal washer above the rubber washer inside the tank. Do it right and it will not leak. In fact, even if you had not specified the way you installed the bolts, I would have told you to remove the metal washer from under the bolt head, because that is the reason for 100% of the leaks after replacing the tank bolts.