Lower kitchen drain for disposal - should I give up?

[mo51]

The wall inlet in my old-house kitchen is about 23 inches above the floor, making it too high to have a disposal installed. The kitchen was remodeled my the previous owner who apparently decided it wasn't worth the effort or expense to change, so no disposal. But the wife has really wanted one for years now. An upcoming project in the adjoining room will require tearout of the drywall that backs up to the drain so this is an opportunity to lower the inlet to allow for a disposal. I opened up the wall today for exploratory work and saw the picture attached. This seems challenging. The drain is 2 inch cast iron (it's about 95 years old). The pipe on the left in the photo is the vent from the basement downstairs. The pipe on the right is the drain. It spits in two (a vent for this kitchen drain and a drain for the sink upstairs). That fitting that splits also has the tee that is the inlet to the kitchen sink drain. The kitchen sink is behind the pipes in the photo, if you can envision that.

So, besides giving up, this is what I think would need to be done: Cut out the entire fixture including the bells at the top and the bottom. Brace the remaining CI with clamps and replace all the removed parts with pvc, lowering everything so the inlet is about 10 inches from the floor. I am also wondering if it makes sense to try to reuse the original tee/three way tee (whatever it's called) or to replace with all-iron. I'm not averse to hiring someone to do this either but am wondering about the best and most efficient way.

Any advice? Thanks in advance.

[Terry]

I think you are on the right track.

Cutting out the strange looking tee and lowering is one way.
If you don't reuse the tee, there are other fittings that could be used too.
A plumber would have either a snap cutter or use a carbide sawzall blade to make his cuts.
Then it would be put back together with no-hub bands.

Most disposers work with an outlet of 19" on a 7" deep sink,
So dropping it to 16" would allow for a 10" deep sink.
You can go lower too.

[hj]

That is a "Stringer fitting" and it almost always indicates that there is another sink on the floor above it. You can cut it out and replace it with a "Y", 45, and a street sanitary tee, but do NOT cut it out and install a sanitary tee directly into the vertical 2" riser.

[SewerRatz]

HJ is right it is a stringer upright wye fitting. They are very common in Illinois. They are normally seen in a basement where there is a utility sink. The 2" line is the drain from the kitchen sink line upstairs and the 1 1/2 or 1 1/4" pipe is the vent for the utility sink.

I have had to remove many of these fittings and remake them out of a PVC wye with a 45º elbow