Valve Seat Removals

CLYDE · Oct 26, 2006

I am trying to remove the shut off valves seats in my shower to replace them
along with new Gerber valves. I have the special angel tool to remove them, tap lightly to get a good bite but they will not budge??? Any secret in getting these loose without cracking anything behind the wall??

Tks

Verdeboy · Oct 26, 2006

If the shaft of your seat wrench is square, you can increase the torque substantially by using a large crescent wrench to turn the seat wrench. If it is round, you can try using a channel locks to do the same thing.

Have you tried squirting some WD-40 in there to try to loosen up the seats?

Sponsor · 2022-01-29T12:20:58-0800

Plumber1 · Oct 26, 2006

With a light, can you actually see if the seat takes a square seat wrench or a six sided seat wrench. Are you bottoming out within the removable seat. If your wrench is too thin you could bottom out at the valve casting and punch right out the back side. Not likely, but could happen.

Could also be a faucet with machined in seats which would require a re seating tool.

But you may have to be less than gentle when using your seat wrench.
Rap it in to grab the seat.

Verdeboy · Oct 26, 2006

plumber1 Are you bottoming out within the removable seat. If your wrench is too thin you could bottom out at the valve casting and punch right out the back side. Not likely said:
If he were bottoming out, I'd think that the wrench would be turning freely, rather than not turning at all.

Joseph_DIY · Jan 20, 2008

plumber1 said:
With a light, can you actually see if the seat takes a square seat wrench or a six sided seat wrench. Are you bottoming out within the removable seat. If your wrench is too thin you could bottom out at the valve casting and punch right out the back side. Not likely, but could happen.

I see that my seat takes neither square or six sided? It looks round to me, no sides. Does this mean it is the machined type? The tools i've used are bottoming out. The seat has about an 1/8 chip on it.

plumber1 said:
Could also be a faucet with machined in seats which would require a re seating tool.

But you may have to be less than gentle when using your seat wrench.
Rap it in to grab the seat.

How do i tell if it is machined in?

thanks,
Joseph

Jimbo · Jan 21, 2008

CLYDE said:
I am trying to remove the shut off valves seats in my shower to replace them
along with new Gerber valves. I have the special angel tool to remove them, tap lightly to get a good bite but they will not budge??? Any secret in getting these loose without cracking anything behind the wall??

Tks

Do you mean that the wrench is well engaged and you just cannot turn it? If so, turn harder!
If the wrench does not engage, i.e. slips and turns without grabbing the seat, you are bottomed out, or the seats are stripped. Look in any plumbers tool box, and likely you will find one seat wrench with the outermost step ground off.

If the seats are stripped, you need a large easy out, maybe a #6.

Redwood · Jan 23, 2008

In that case look very carefully there are 4 Small grooves that a square wrench goes into. Very easy to strip out!

Jerry Ellis · Feb 14, 2008

Valve Seat Romoval

I just had the same problem where I couldn't get the old bathtub seat out, even with the proper seat wrench. The seat had a square hole in the middle of it and I bought the seat removal tool with the decreasing square head on one end. After a couple hours of frustration, I realized that the seat removal tool was not able to go into the square opening in the seat far enough to make a tight fit. What I had to do was use a bench grinder to remove the narrowest square section from the tip of the seat removal tool. This allowed the tool to go into the seat another 1/4 inch, which was enough to get a tight fit before I turned the seat removal tool. I had pretty well stripped the inside of the seat before I realized what was happening, but once I got the tip of the tool ground down and it fit tightly in the center of the seat, I was still able to remove the stripped seat.

Valve Seat Removals

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