Rusty Delta Kitchen Faucet Repair--Help anyone?

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weaverinva

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Hi all,

I have a 21 year old delta sindle handle and a side sprayer. Underneath the faucet, the 2 screws which hold the faucet and the nut and washer are significantly rusted. So much so that the metal washers have disintegrated and now the faucet is very loose. I could probaly lift it out if I disconnected it below.

To make matters worse, a replacement may be a bit more involved. The copper supply lines go down into a compression couplers which couples to grey polybutalene plastic pipe.

From my understanding of the new ones, these bolts are a carriage bolt in the top.

The nuts do not move and are 'frozen' with rust. I am trying to use PB blaster (wd40 like) to loosen them and then use new washers.

The faucet works great but its simply loose and moves .5 to 1 inch front and back. The threads don't even look to bad; if I could fix it somehow...

Any ideas or options are appreciated.

Thank you in advance. Mike in Shenandoah Valley VA
 

Terry

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It's time you let that faucet go to it's resting place.

21 years. That's a lot of years in dog years.
by now, you should be seeing wear around the spout, and will be needing new rubber seals. Just wiggle the spout while the water is on and see how much water pours from there.
 

weaverinva

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You've got me smiling

Terry,

This is a great board! Thank you for your reply.

Quite honestly, the faucet works amazingly well. A year or two ago I did a full washer rebuild including the 2 larger o rings and the internal washers where the hot and cold go in.

I have sawzalled off another one and replaced it in another building but I thought another 5 years might be possible.

It looks a bit used but is fine in a mid tier apartment that I maintain my self.

I suppose I could replace the whole thing since I can get it out through the top and get flex supply lines to fit the poly couplers.

Even if I get the nuts off. Local plumbing supply said they would have to order the washers for me. Hmmmm I wonder about Lowes.

Myabe I'm too idealistic but I'd rather not throw the thing in the landfill but also am *not* going to spend enormous amouts of time buying faucet nut splitters,etc. I found that reference in the old forums area.

More wisdom?

Mike
 

hj

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Delta

Faucet nut splitters are not going to work anyway, because you have 3/8" carriage bolts holding the faucet in place. If they are that rusted, then the mounting plate is probably shot also, usually because the faucet has been leaking for a long time. If you try to unbolt the nuts with a 9/16" socket, the bolts will probably "strip" their broaches in the mounting plate. If the bolts do not simply twist and break through the mounting plate you will probably have to bend the chrome cover back so you can either drill the bolt heads out or saw them off.
 

Master Plumber Mark

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delta stuff is good

Hi is right about the difficlty of getting that faucet off


I have found it easier just to drill down through the top
of the bolt to get it off.....

get a high speed metal drill bit and just make swiss cheese out of the bolts

then you should be albe to put a socket on the bottom and just bent
it with force till they break...
 

weaverinva

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hj and master mark,

Thank you for the comments.

Your right; it likely has been leaking for some time.

Sooo everyone else has these problems too. This is only my 2nd replacement on this kind of faucet. A year ago I used a sawzall and cut the bolts from the bottom. Then replaced it.

Hmmm. Good idea. about drilling from the top. What use a bit the diameter of the actual bolt? The carriage head would likely be a bit bigger but that kind of cut down through there should ream out the holding bracked enough to get the bolt loose. Nice idea.

Looks like a replacement is imminent.

Not I need to get the sizes on this thing so that I can mate properly the flex supply lines to the grey polybutelene.

Anything to watch out for here?

Thank you again.

Mike .
 

Plumber1

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If you put another Delta or Delta like faucet, throw away the rubber or plastic gasket that comes with it and set the faucet with plumbers putty.
That old faucet was allowing water to get under it and leak down below.

If it were set that way the first time, you would have been able to remove it or you still could have repaired it and kept it in good repair.
I don't like to set anything with silicone.
I would rather use anything but silicone for whatever......
 

weaverinva

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plumber1 and hj,

Thank you, thank you for the responses. I always wondered why some rusted and other did not as much. I thought it might be the water.

Plumber's putty; I will check it out. Is it easy to remove for another future replacement in 20 years? Would a person use the putty with the rubber gasket? I will likely replace on Sat with another delta. The Lowes package uses a clear instead of black seal. Sorry for the newbie questions....

Thank you hj on the bolt size. Easier than a sawzall.

Mike
 

Plumber1

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Plumbers putty will be easy to get off years from now.
Don't use the rubber gasket. Just the putty. The gasket wont keep water from getting under the faucet and leaking down the supply and dripping on to the floor of the cupboard or rusting the bolts that hold the faucet. Ditto goes for the clear plastic.
It couldn't hurt to put a little dab of grease on the bolt threads.
When I install a new faucet I always take it apart and I use silicone grease on everything that moves, like inside the spout where it turns on the post and on the seal that holds the ball in place and on the threads inside the round cap that holds everything down and then screw the cap hand tight. Then adjust the tension on the top of the ball at that plastic part that has the slot. That should keep the faucet in good order for a while. But don't wait till the faucet gets in bad shape before you take it apart and redo again.
That last advice is easier said than done........
 

weaverinva

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Excellent comments plumber1. That is the way to get some life out of stuff. I may do that on some of my Deltas here at the house.

Thank you hj.

Progress. I got the replacement. Decide to buy from Lowes instead of a plumbing distributor. All the replacements have plastic threaded posts. Seems nice enough and reasonably strong. Looks and works good.

I asked about brands (whew a whole other discussion) but the guy seems to like Price-pfsizer and kohler because of their internal ceramic valve. Oh well brand loyalty and familiarity won, I bought the Delta anyway.

Curious about something else. I have Qwest pipe and they guy said that because the new faucet uses the threaded quick connect, that I could use a flex line to connect to my Qest. He was right however..... This braided flex line (nice) connected to the faucet well but because the nuts were rather shallow, I only got 2-2.5 threads on the Qest. I worked hard for awhile getting the feel so that the metal did not cross thread the plastic. This concerns me because it seems to be connected by so little.

Here are some pictures before the fix. Sorry don't have any after yet.

Any suggestions here? The flex line nut did not connect far mainly because of the small diameter of the Qwest side hole and the significant black washer on the flex line side.

To be clear, the two pictures are *before* the fix. I disconnected the Qwest nut at the valve, removed the qwest pipe, and interconnect to the copper from the old Delta.

Thank you for any comments.

Mike

PS Hmmm. I just when and review the situation. I think the inside diameter of the pipe is far larger in the male to male joint that you see in the attached picture versus the inside diameter of the hole in the Qest valve. I think this is my problem. Perhaps I should put the Qest short lengths back on and then attach the flex line to the end of the male to male coupler. Then the fit might be better.
 

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Plumber1

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Quest

I don't understand exactly what you have that your working with.
I reluctantly need to use Quest and if your Delta has 3/8" tubes attached as supply connections, and if they have 1/2" MIP connections then I would connect a 1/2" FIP X 3/8" adapter to the stop. The stop is 1/2" pipe thread.
I hate to mix metal with plastic.
You can buy long supplies that are 1/2" compression on one end and 3/8" compression on the other end. I use a little of the thin tape and a dab of teflon dope on the pipe thread.
 

weaverinva

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I'm sorry plumber1.

Here is the exact faucet I put in.
http://www.deltafaucet.com/media/Product_Tech_Docs/Parts_Diagram/Models_100_110_400_59fd.pdf

A series 400 with the screw connectors. I then got a flex supply line (1/2" I think) with the exact same connectors on both ends. Attached one female end to the faucet side and the other to the Qest

Agree, don't like to mix plastic and metal. That is my concern the metal femail connect to the Qest value seems like it fits but only catches maybe 2 threads and with it being metal gripping plastic, it sure could get crossthreaded easily. I tried hard to make sure it was not cross threaded but when tightening down, you sure hope your right.

when you say stop, I assume you mean the Qest value stop?

Hmmm. I should change how I connected this.

Thank you for your comments. Any more comments appreciated.

Mike W.
 

Plumber1

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Mike. I don't think you should change it.
There's more than one way to do things.
I would have used a 1/2" fip x 3/8" supply adaptor at the shut off valve.
And then used a supply that was 3/8" at the supply adaptor and 1/2" at the faucet.
And I think we both are talking about the flexible, reinforced supply that has rubber washers built into each end.
You only start those compression nuts finger tight and the set them with a crescent or end wrench. And not tork them.........
 

weaverinva

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Yes, we are both talking about the same reinforeced supply line with stainless braiding around it and 1/2" on both ends.

I am glad to know you think its okay. I have done this before on copper with metal shut off valves but not with this Qest stuff. I wish I didn't have it but such is life.

Yes, I carefully hand threaded the 1/2" nuts which ,yes, had black rubber wahser built into each end, and then turned them about another 1/4 to 1/3 of a turn. Felt nice and tight even though only catching a few threads.

I understand what you would have done.

I can't thank you enough for providing me, a newbie, with a few answers here.

Thank you. May you be blessed.

Mike
 
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