Halftime plumbing

I just about overdosed myself on basketball yesterday, and I'm pretty much doing the same thing today. But at halftime of the Gonzaga vs Creighton game I decided to get a job done. Gonzaga is way ahead anyway so I knew I wasn't going to miss anything if it took a little longer than half time.

The shower in the master bathroom has had a slow drip for quite some time and recently it was getting a little worse. Since I have a well and a pressure tank I know this is not good for that set of equipment to have to run for no reason other than a valve is leaking. I had replaced this Delta Valve cylinder not long after I moved in here so I'm guessing more than 10 years ago. I don't remember it as being particularly difficult and in preparation I watched a couple of different videos on the YouTube.

So with my new valve & new strap wrenches in hand, I started the job.

The first steps were easy, taking off the escutcheon and the decorative parts of the faucet. And flipping out the old cylinder, that was pretty easy, once I broke the vacuum from water sitting above it

Getting the new cylinder to seat was a b****. I pushed, I lubricated the new equipment and the brass fitting it was trying to slide into and I pushed some more. I re-watched the video to make sure I didn't miss a step but in the video the new cylinder popped right in, with only a minimal amount of pressure. 

I could not bridge that small gap you see between the white arrow and the brass fitting.

I tried seating the old cylinder again and it also slid in with only a minimal amount of pressure. Then it dawned on me, there were two extra O-rings in the bag with the new cylinder so I wondered if perhaps those were a smaller outside diameter.  

I swapped them out for the ones that were on the new piece and that solved my problem

The new valve seated nicely I was able to replace the brass ring and replace the rest of the decorative parts of the faucet.

Good news, there are no leaks with the water back on.

I couldn't see anything wrong with the old cylinder but there are springs and O-rings on the inside and very likely those are corroded from my high acidic and high iron water. You can rebuild these things, but I believe this one will go in the recycling bin.

These new strap wrenches are pretty cool and I will have other reasons to use those. For sure any work to be done on a faucet it's nice to have these so you don't gouge the chrome.

I missed halftime, the whole third quarter, and most of the fourth quarter, but the job is done.  Hopefully it lasts at least 10 years!

And Gonzaga won big anyway. 

🤔

Of course, no plumbing project goes that smoothly.

When I started the water for the shower, I could only get a tepid temp.

So, more Google & YouTube and I figured out how to adjust the scald guard.

Now I am showered and feeling good about my day.

On to more basketball now.