Bathtub lift bucket is stuck

[Floydbird]

I have a standard bathtub with trip lever. The lift bucket is stuck in the open position (so the tub drains, but I cannot close it to take a bath). I have removed the trip lever but the lift bucket seems stuck in the overflow pipe. I can’t seem to budge it at all-I can’t remove the linkages either. I’m afraid that if I pull too hard, I will break the linkage or the bucket and have an even worse issue. Any ideas how to get the lift bucket out?

I put an endoscope down the overflow. The bucket appears to be ok, just locked in place by rust/deposits? I would like to just soak it to dissolve rust, but obviously anything I pour into the overflow mostly goes down the drain

 

[Jeff Handy]

You could pour some CLR down there, leave it overnight, rinse with some fresh water, then spray penetrating oil down there with the little straw from the spray can.

After a few hours, you could take a long skinny socket from a socket wrench set, securely attach it to a piece of 12 gauge solid electrical wire, and drop that down the hole to bang on the stuck bucket, it might pop it loose.

 

[TomFOhio]

If that doesn't work you can take the overflow pipe off the tee and work it loose from there. You have to have an access
opening in the back of the tub to do this. Hopefully what Jeff suggested will work.

 

[Floydbird]

Thanks you guys. I tried CLR and PB blaster. Even got a thin metal dowel and stuck it down the overflow pipe and tapped it fairly hard with a hammer hoping to jar it loose. It’s just totally seized up. Luckily for me it has failed in the open position. So I’m just going to leave it and get a pop up stopper