Leaking Price Pfister Handles

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Elapidae

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What a wonderful forum!!! Boy do I have a lot of questions. (Please bear with me)

I just replaced the diverter and valve bodies in my master shower. Mainly because the diverter had issues. The Hot and cold handles always leaked (into the handle) but I expected this behavior to stop when I put in the new hot and cold valve bodies on (valve body may not be the correct term). Much to my disappointment, the water still leaks from inside the handles (a small but steady stream). It’s as if the water is running down the brass valve stem (again, I may not be using the correct terms) to the inside of the handle and then out the handle. The stems came already assembled to the valve bodies (and I’m not sure they can be removed). When I installed the new valve bodies, I just used the nylon gaskets they came with and some Teflon tape but the leak doesn’t appear to be from the threaded connection I made when installing. What’s more disturbing is that the replacement knobs and pipe cover stems (chrome decorative covers for the pipe between the wall and handles) seem to leak water. This means that if I screw the fluted pipe cover stems firmly against the faux marble wall, they will fill with water and the water will run into the holes and down the wall.
I’ve loosened the pipe cover stems so that I can clearly see the larger portion of the valve bodies (about 1.5 inches from the wall) and there is no water leaking from that portion of the valve body and yet it’s still running from the handle and pipe cover which again leads me to believe that it’s leaking from the valve stem portion of the valve body. Any idea how I can fix this? Thanks in advance.

pp_tub_valve.jpg
 
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Elapidae

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Maybe this will help explain:
 

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Jimbo

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OK, this will be easy for you: The nut you marked "seems to leak from here" is a packing nut. Beneath the nut is a rubber and fibre packing gland. The packing keeps water from leaking around the stem when the faucet is on. The nut is to tighten the packing appropriately.. First, use a little faucet grease on the stem just before it goes into the packing. Run the stem in a out a few times. Now, install the stem into the shower valve. Tighten the packing with a socket just about 1/4 turn. Now, turn on the water. Turn it on and off a few times. The stem should turn smoothly. If any water drips out past the stem, tighten the nut in 1/4 steps and retry, until there are not leaks. Now, reassemble your trim.

That picture is worth a 1000 words as they say, and makes life very easy for us on this forum. Thank you very much!!!
 

Elapidae

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jimbo said:
OK, this will be easy for you: The nut you marked "seems to leak from here" is a packing nut. Beneath the nut is a rubber and fibre packing gland. The packing keeps water from leaking around the stem when the faucet is on. The nut is to tighten the packing appropriately.. First, use a little faucet grease on the stem just before it goes into the packing. Run the stem in a out a few times. Now, install the stem into the shower valve. Tighten the packing with a socket just about 1/4 turn. Now, turn on the water. Turn it on and off a few times. The stem should turn smoothly. If any water drips out past the stem, tighten the nut in 1/4 steps and retry, until there are not leaks. Now, reassemble your trim.

That picture is worth a 1000 words as they say, and makes life very easy for us on this forum. Thank you very much!!!

Fantastic!!! Thank you very much. I'm going to try this now.
 
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