Since buying my house I noticed, looking through the shower strainer into the drain, a lot of gunk and build up around the drain perimeter. Finally I popped the strainer off and proceeded to remove a thick wad of green slime... Though when I pulled it out I realized it was actually some kind of black tar or sealant that just had a layer of shower scum on the outside. Evidently this was the previous owner's way of replacing the old drain seal. The drain is a Caspers Industries 101-BR made in Oakland CA. This is an unusual type of drain from the research I've done on trying to figure this out. It does not have a compression nut or threads for one on the inside of the drain body. I believe it's the sort which is supposed to have a rubber sleeve shoved down inside to create a seal between the drain body and 2" PVC. There doesn't seem to be much info out there on the web. I found and purchased a seal (Fernco SD200) from the plumbing supply store and started to work on digging out the rest of the "tar" from around the PVC to make way for the new sleeve. After a couple minutes I decided it would be very difficult to completely remove all this stuff and leave clean surfaces to make a good seal. Furthermore the surfaces would likely remain too tacky to even allow me to slide the new seal in place. I decided to leave it alone and see if I still had a good enough seal with the "tar" still remaining around the drain. After a couple weeks i noticed water damage in the drywall ceiling below, so obviously I removed enough of the "tar" to break the half-ass seal done by previous owner. Now I want to figure out how to remove the old drain and start fresh. Cutting into the ceiling below, I can see the nut below the fiberglass shower pan, but I can't see how to remove the nut, is there a special tool I need for this? Also, is it likely I can replace this drain with the more common, no-caulk type which has the lock nut and neoprene gasket? Just not sure if my shower pan is compatible with that drain type or not. I will post some photos in a bit of the top and bottom of drain.
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