Mr. Creosote
Member
I'd like to remove a plug/rocker arm assembly from a bathtub. Are there any tricks to doing this?
I recently moved into a condo (mid 70's build) and the previous owner was using a large flat rubber plug to cover the drain hole in the bathtub. The tub appears to has a rocker arm/stopper but when I removed the overflow plate, I found plunger hardware rather than the spring at the end of the linkage that I was expecting. What I'm thinking is that the owners had tried to fix the tub at some point, but purchased the wrong hardware and just left it in place. I experimented with the plunger assembly but was unable to block the drain waterflow, so I think it is just stopping at the rocker arm.
The drain plug is very stiff and I don't expect it would work even with the proper linkage hardware so I'd like to replace the plug with a pop-up or something similar. Most replacement rocker arms that I see have hinge pins so I'm expecting, with a bit of finesse, it should be removable. Any tips on how to remove the plug and rocker arm? I'm not sure if there were any designs where the rocker arm can't be removed from the shoe through the drain hole.
I recently moved into a condo (mid 70's build) and the previous owner was using a large flat rubber plug to cover the drain hole in the bathtub. The tub appears to has a rocker arm/stopper but when I removed the overflow plate, I found plunger hardware rather than the spring at the end of the linkage that I was expecting. What I'm thinking is that the owners had tried to fix the tub at some point, but purchased the wrong hardware and just left it in place. I experimented with the plunger assembly but was unable to block the drain waterflow, so I think it is just stopping at the rocker arm.
The drain plug is very stiff and I don't expect it would work even with the proper linkage hardware so I'd like to replace the plug with a pop-up or something similar. Most replacement rocker arms that I see have hinge pins so I'm expecting, with a bit of finesse, it should be removable. Any tips on how to remove the plug and rocker arm? I'm not sure if there were any designs where the rocker arm can't be removed from the shoe through the drain hole.
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