Replacing faucets on 1940's sink

[so-sa]

DO NOT touch the overflow fitting or the "spacer" between the drain and the sink. Those a parts specific to that sink, not part of the drain assembly which will come with the new faucet. There are literally HUNDREDS of faucets which will work on the sink, adn they will ALL have a new drain assembly and pop-up unit..

Yessir! Thanks for the warning. My guess would be that I'd loosen that big nut on the bottom of the overflow, and that would allow me to remove and replace the drain and lower piping? How does the overflow feed into the drain pipe?

[Hackney plumbing]

The "spacer" is a mack washer turned upside down. Its nothing special about the "spacer" itself. Whats different is the exposed overflow and the mack gasket...what HJ is calling the spacer between the lavatory and the overflow assembly. Thats not typical. Usually the overflow is integral to the bowl and no extra mack gasket is needed in that space. It would be factory made into one assembly.

I'm not saying go wild and tear it all out. By all means if it stays in tact and in in good shape you cna leave that "spacer" alone.

Loosen the large nut until it stops at the bottom of the threads. if it will not turn the use a saw and carefully saw it on two sides and pry it off. It will fall into two pieces.

Now cut the lower mack gasket into with a razor knife and carefully remove it. The entire drain will now lift up and there will be a gap between the lavatory and the chromed brass flange that you see when looking down into the lavatory.

While holding the bottom "half" of the pop up assembly...grab the rim of the flange inside the lavatory with some channelocks and turn the flange counter-clockwise to unscrew it. It will come apart and the rest of the pop up assembly will drop out of the bottom. The p-trap should also be removed by now.

If the upper mack gasket is rotten you can get another at any good plumbing repair specialty store or a good hardware store thats local owned.

I like Delta or wolverine brass all chromed brass pop up assemblies. There is also an American standard brass pop up I like. Kohler makes a fine one. Dont buy a plastic one and do not buy a cheap knock off thats chromed brass made in china......they are garbage and the stoppers do not have enough travel. Grohe also makes a nice pop up.

[Hackney plumbing]

Or you could leave the pop up alone other than getting a pop up stopper for it (readily available) and a new horizontal ball rod (readily available). Not much to be gained by replacing it if its not leaking. You being a DIY I'm not sure what your skill level is or how much time your willing to spend.....no offense intended.

[so-sa]

Or you could leave the pop up alone other than getting a pop up stopper for it (readily available) and a new horizontal ball rod (readily available). Not much to be gained by replacing it if its not leaking. You being a DIY I'm not sure what your skill level is or how much time your willing to spend.....no offense intended.

no offense taken- I'll start on the faucets and see how that goes before I touch anything else. Thank you all so much for all the help! I'll probably be back once I get the parts- still am tempted by that Kingston Brass set, but with no positive long term reviews am not sure I'll end up going with it.

[californialife]

Good to know about that drain- thanks.

What do you think about getting this http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden...3/product.html to get replacement faucets, and possibly the spout? So far I haven't seen anywhere to get items not as a set.

I realize this is an old thread but this is very closely related to a problem I have. My sink is a late 40s (1949, I think) and it had the same style of 70s faucet installed by a prior owner, only with lovely clear plastic (crystal) handles. The valves are shot and resist any attempts at repair. My sink is slightly different in that it has a backsplash with a significant radius just behind the faucet. I ordered this very faucet set and found that it protrudes too far to the rear and won't seat flat due to the radius on the backsplash. Upon closer examination, it appears the existing faucet was ground down to fit...nice workmanship (not). Love the cross type handles and look of this model but just doesn't fit.

Is anyone aware of a similar looking faucet with a smaller (or more forward set) footprint? Or any 40s style with an undercut in the back? I'd even be happy with no stopper pull as we never use the stopper anyway. Any ideas would be most appreciated!

[hj]

we would need a picture of the sink, because your difficulty is NOT normal for any sink of this type.

[californialife]

we would need a picture of the sink, because your difficulty is NOT normal for any sink of this type.

Thank you for responding. Here are some photos:


As you can see, the faucet hole is set fairly far back and behind the valves.

[hj]

That particular faucet is a PricePfister wide spread, but you said it had "clear crystal handles". If this is the faucet you were referring to in the original posting, the valves a NOT 'shot' and are easy to repair to"like new" condition.

The faucet "hole" should be the same distance as the other two, because that is the way they made sinks back then. At that time the faucets did NOT have "hoses" so all three openings HAD to be exactly in a line. But even if it is offset because of the drain overflow, your "problem" is that the spout has "overhang" at the rear. Not many new faucets use that design so you have the choice of many new ones, including all current Pfister faucets.