I have a 60's era 3 handle bathtub/shower combo in our guest room that I'm trying to rebuild. All three valves were hard to operate when we first bought the house (1961 Tucson ranch) but we didn't worry about it until the diverter stopped fully diverting water to the shower head.
I purchased new valves after IDing my old one with Pfister over the phone, and bought OEM ones. I also purchased all the required tools and all that fun stuff. Since the diverter valve was the fault one, I'm working on that one first.
I've pulled the old valve, and the old seat, installed the new seat with thread tape and pipe dope, and installed the new valve, and the problem hasn't changed a bit. The old valve I pulled out looks identical to the new one, other than being a lot rustier and greener obviously. When turned fully CCW, the spout still spits out about 40% of the water, and the shower head maybe 60. As it turns CW, it diverts fully to the tub.
I've pulled the showerhead to make sure a blockage up there isn't causing the issue, and I've checked the valve body for old chunks of washer (didn't find any). I've included a link to a pic of my new valve in case anyone sees anything obviously wrong with it.
https://flic.kr/p/sbHSMo[1]
This is really frustrating because I feel like I've done everything right (ordered OEM, checked with Pfister, did the seat as well, etc...) and of course, it doesn't work.
It doesn't help that instructions for doing this online and with the valve are either conflicting or non-existent.
(The instructions for the valve, for example, say the make sure the valve is "fully open" before installing it. My understanding is that "full open" means "not blocking the flow of water at all, so it goes directly to the spout" Which is the opposite of what everything I've read in plumbing forum discussions say to do, which is to turn it fully CCW (or ALMOST fully CCW, of course people differ there too) which is fully CLOSED)
I've seen a LOT of discussion threads about others having the exact same problem as me, except they all end in one of two ways:
- Oh, whoops, I was missing a washer (they don't say which washer, naturally). I have three (two white nylon, one black rubber at the very rear held on by a screw) and I'm assuming since it's a brand new OEM valve that it's not missing any.
- Someone suggests it's the washer, the other person says the washer is fine, someone then suggests just replacing the entire valve (A WAY more involved process) and the other person just stops responding.
I'd be eternally grateful if anyone could help me figure this out.
I purchased new valves after IDing my old one with Pfister over the phone, and bought OEM ones. I also purchased all the required tools and all that fun stuff. Since the diverter valve was the fault one, I'm working on that one first.
I've pulled the old valve, and the old seat, installed the new seat with thread tape and pipe dope, and installed the new valve, and the problem hasn't changed a bit. The old valve I pulled out looks identical to the new one, other than being a lot rustier and greener obviously. When turned fully CCW, the spout still spits out about 40% of the water, and the shower head maybe 60. As it turns CW, it diverts fully to the tub.
I've pulled the showerhead to make sure a blockage up there isn't causing the issue, and I've checked the valve body for old chunks of washer (didn't find any). I've included a link to a pic of my new valve in case anyone sees anything obviously wrong with it.
https://flic.kr/p/sbHSMo[1]
This is really frustrating because I feel like I've done everything right (ordered OEM, checked with Pfister, did the seat as well, etc...) and of course, it doesn't work.
It doesn't help that instructions for doing this online and with the valve are either conflicting or non-existent.
(The instructions for the valve, for example, say the make sure the valve is "fully open" before installing it. My understanding is that "full open" means "not blocking the flow of water at all, so it goes directly to the spout" Which is the opposite of what everything I've read in plumbing forum discussions say to do, which is to turn it fully CCW (or ALMOST fully CCW, of course people differ there too) which is fully CLOSED)
I've seen a LOT of discussion threads about others having the exact same problem as me, except they all end in one of two ways:
- Oh, whoops, I was missing a washer (they don't say which washer, naturally). I have three (two white nylon, one black rubber at the very rear held on by a screw) and I'm assuming since it's a brand new OEM valve that it's not missing any.
- Someone suggests it's the washer, the other person says the washer is fine, someone then suggests just replacing the entire valve (A WAY more involved process) and the other person just stops responding.
I'd be eternally grateful if anyone could help me figure this out.
