bathtub drain linkage assembly not stopping water flow

[karkalec]

Hi There,

I'm a total amateur and am trying to get my tub drain to stop water so my little girl can take a bath. I removed the face plate and there was no part of an old linkage assembly behind it except a cotter pin left over. I stuck a coat hanger down in the hole and could fish out nothing, although I did get the coat hanger stuck for a few heart-stopping seconds.

This morning I bought a Danco tub drain linkage assembly at Home Depot. I noticed it was the only option they had and assumed they were standard size for that reason. When I tried it out it did not stop the flow of the water out of the drain. I tried adjusting it to various lengths including making it as long as possible so I could feel it resting on the bottom of the pipe (it went in very smoothly and I couldn't feel any parts of the old assembly down there when I was feeding it in). Water still drains out of the tub regardless of where the drain stopper is. Anybody have any idea why this is so?

Thanks!

Justin

 

[LiQuId]

Wet rag in the drain is the most Ghetto assemblly.. but I assume you are talking about a plug ??

just buy one that is the same diamater of the drain outlet.

 

[Caduceus]

Did the trip lever and drain operate normally before or are you new to the house? For you to pull off the face plate and find only the cotter pin would indicate that there is something left in the overflow tube. If you can get to the back of the tub to see the oveflow tube, maybe a measurement will help out. You would be able to see where the horizontal and the vertical parts of the drain meet and where the plug would sit to stop the flow.
Measure the distance from the center of the overflow to the bottom of where the weighted plug would sit inside the pipe. When adjusting the assembly be sure the lever is in the 'drain closed' position with the lever up. See if the measurements and the length of the linkage match up.
Let us know how it goes and if you need more info.

 

[karkalec]

It has not operated since we moved into the house, I just didn't really care before now. Cotter pin was attached to the back of the face plate like someone had removed the linkage assembly for some reason. I cannot access the back of the tub without destroying the drywall in the adjoining room, so I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do a measurement. I am pretty sure there is nothing remaining in the pipe because of how smoothly the plug slid down all the way until it was resting on the bottom. Shouldn't the 'drain closed' position be all the way at the bottom, or would it be slightly above the bottom? Maybe I need to experiment with moving it up a little bit and trying it again. Also, do they make plugs of different diameters for this type of assembly? The plug I bought is a little loose in the pipe, but it was the only size they sold at the store.

 

[Mr_David]

Different brand of plug probably to small for the existing drain. Just by a rubber plug and stick it in the drain. If you have a grill over the drain with a screw in the center just take out the screw and remove the cover.

 

[Caduceus]

I think we've lost something here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are talking about a trip lever waste and overflow assembly, right? They should be a standard 1 1/2" drain assembly. Yes, the plug should sit inside the tee and almost bottom out to stop the water from draining. Extend the linkage all of the way out to see if it stops and adjust in reverse making it slightly shorter until the overflow cover can be screwed into place.

 

[karkalec]

I guess trip lever would be the right term. It's the one pictured below. So is it likely that I have it seated too low and water is flowing out ABOVE it? The diagrams I've been looking at seem to indicate that having it as low as possible will obstruct the flow of water as it should.

Thanks,

Justin

 

[phishfood]

The trip lever drains I have seen use 1 1/2" tubular drain size, and use a compression adaptor to change to 1 1/2" Sch 40 IPS. If the linkage is too long, the plug MIGHT be dropping down into the much larger IPS pipe, where it obviously wouldn't seal. So it is possible that you need to adjust the linkage shorter. On the flip side, I installed one for a friend a while back on a tub that was so deep that I had to make an additional section for the linkage to get the plug to drop far enough to seal.