Leaky Shower Head in Modular Shower

We have a 6 year old acrylic (?) modular shower with the single pull/push control. The shower head is leaking and the valve probably just needs to have the rings replaced. However, there is only a small hole under the control. We can't see the valve assembly. Does the whole acrylic wall have to be removed, or do plumbers have some magic tool to repair this? We want to remove the modular unit and rebuild the shower with tile, but won't have the money to do that until next year, so I don't want to spend a lot right now. But it's driving me crazy!!

Tell us what brand the shower valve is. Sounds like a MOEN valve and you can buy the replacement cartridges almost anywhere.

We don't know what brand the valve is, we can't get to it. I'm not so worried about fixing it, just not sure how to get to it. Does the whole shower wall have to be taken down? Or is there some tool or something that can fit through the small hole to fix the valve? (Although we can't see anything in the hole, so I'm doubtful that would work!)
Thanks!

Are you saying that you removed the faucet handle and the backer plate and you are not seeing the cartridge? The handle must be linked to the cartridge in order to turn the water on and off. There's no magic tool, and I'm not sure what kind of hole there would be under the "control".

We need a picture.

When we take the handle and the round backer plate off, there is just a small hole in the acrylic shower wall. It's really nothing to take a picture of. The hole isn't big enough to see what's inside. The shower is made of three panels, a back and two sides. I think we could probably just pry the one side off the wall and then reinstall it, but I sure hate to do that since we wanted to redo the shower in a few months. Maybe we should just go ahead and remove the acrylic shower and do the tile now.

If it's a MOEN, you don't need to take the shower apart. Look up MOEN on Google and you may find a parts break down or maybe Terry can send you a link,,,,

You can make the hole in the wall about an 1" or so smaller in diameter than the trim piece, if that would help. Some of the companies also sell remodel plates thatcan cover a hole big enough to remove and replace the whole thing. But, the best solution may be to replace the guts of what is there...a picture would help.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm beginning to think I don't know what I'm talking about! It is probably a cheap single faucet in genuire faux crystal plastic. You pull it out to turn it on and twist it to make it hotter or colder. I think it must be a cartridge type. Maybe the valve is right there and we just didn't see it. The tub has the same kind of control and it is installed where there is drywall, above the tile that surrounds the tub. I think maybe we should open that one up to look at it and give ouselves an idea of what the shower faucet looks like. We could make the hole a little bigger and then cover it up with the round cover. I'll do a little more investigating!

Jim is exactly right. Make the hole bigger, so you can remove the cartridge. But not so big that the trim plate won't cover it. The best tool for this is a Dremel with a multipurpose bit. A hole saw would work, but you can't use a pilot, so it would not be easy.

valve

Many single handle valves do not need a large hole because the entire mechanism is outside the wall. Especially the twist for temperature, push/pull for volume ones. A picture of what you can see and the handle and trim plate might be helpful

Well, I decided to call a plumber to look at it. It turns out is is a Moen (I was surprised--I thought they were more high end). He wanted $250 to rebuild the valve. Since we want to redo the shower, we decided to just go back to the plan of doing it ourselves. I'm guessing we could just replace the valve for a lot less (mostly because our labor is "free"). Does anybody have any tips, warnings? Thanks! You guys are great!

It's about a 10 minute job if all goes well.

Turn off the water to the shower.

Remove the handle and backer plate.

Enlarge the hole if need be.

Pull out the cartridge retaining clip with a needle nose pliers. It's a little horseshoe shaped clip that keeps the cartridge from shooting out when the water is turned on. (Make sure you note the position of the cartridge, so you can put the clip back on easily).

The hard part is pulling out the cartridge, especially if it is frozen. Try pulling on the stem with a pliers or channel locks. Don't jerk it, but rather pull it smoothely and forcefully. They make a moen cartridge puller that you can buy if necessary.

Once you get it out, replace the rubber washer at the very bottom of the cartridge.

Put everything back together again.

If it still leaks, you can try to replace other seals or just replace the whole cartridge.

You won't believe this!

I have carfully read and printed all your responses to my inquiry. We decided the fix would probably be simple, so I finally called a plumber because I thought it would be inexpensive (and my husband isn't always that handy...). The plumber wanted $250 to do it, which we didn't want to spend because we are planning on redoing the shower within the next 6 months. But he did tell us it was a Moen. So we did more research on the Moen, checked it out at Home Despot, printed all the instructions on the Moen web site, and were thinking of tackling the job later this week. I just turned on the water to the bathtub (which has exactly the same knob as the shower) and when I pulled the knob, the center part in the "crystal" knob fell out. Lo and behold! There was the cartridge, which we could now see through the clear plastic. I think we see now that we can fix it without taking the knob off or tearing into the wall. What is it they say about God protecting idiots? Thanks to all of you for your help, too!