Dripping shower head - please help

Hi all,

We built a house and moved in about 3.5 years ago. We have a shower stall only set up and the shower head has this ridiculous drip that sometimes if you push on the shut off handle really hard, it'll go away but othertimes not.

Any guidance? I know it's probably not a shower head issue, rather a shut off valve issue. The shut off says "Delta Monitor" on it. It's a single handle. Big plate around it and then a handle (presumably with some sort of stem) coming out of it.

Will just taking the handle off (the one I just allen wrenched on tighter because it was getting sloppy) get me to see what I need to or do I have to unscrew the whole face plate? I'm hoping I don't have to since then I guess I'd have to clear caulk around it (though it doesn't look like there's any caulk between the plate and the shower stall itself).

How hard is this to repair? I'd consider myself at an intermediate level for home repair - pretty handy with all the basic tools, etc.

I have no way (well no good way) to get to the backside of the shower because the "backside" is really a wall that is quite visible at the one end of the whirlpool tub.

Thanks in advance!

2 questions.

What brand is the shower valve?

What is the distance from the center of the shower valve to where the shower head pipe comes out the wall?

valve

If it is leaking there is no "repair" to stop it, other than changing the core that the handle is connected to. I assume you have the 1400 series which only has the single handle. If so, get a new core for it, remove the handle, slide off the large tube that goes through the large round plate, (you may have to twist while pulling it, but it is not screwed in), unscrew the large round "nut", then pull the old piece out after looking to see how it is oriented and put the new one back in the same way, then replace the nut, tube, and handle in the reverse order you removed them.