Our kitchen faucet was not working very well.\u00a0 When you pushed the spout to either side, the whole faucet would turn.\u00a0 When you pushed the lever to shut off the water, the valve would snap shut so hard it made the pipes rattle.\u00a0 This should be simple to fix, yes?<\/p>\n
First things first.\u00a0 Take everything out from under the sink and figure out where to put it.\u00a0 This may be the most stressful part of the process.\u00a0 Why do we need four different bottles of silver polish?\u00a0 What’s with all these plastic bags from the supermarket?<\/p>\n
Now, examine the situation.\u00a0 Hmm, that big nut under the sink holding the faucet in place.\u00a0 I will need to loosen that so I can remove the faucet so I can take the faucet apart so I can clean it and replace any worn-out O-rings.\u00a0 But the only tool I have that fits that nut is too bulky to use in the space between the back of the sink and the cabinet.\u00a0 I need a tool.<\/em><\/p>\n Off to Ace Hardware.\u00a0 They’re just right down the street.\u00a0 Fast trip, there and back home and we can get this thing done.\u00a0 But it seems Ace doesn’t have what I need.\u00a0 What I need is a tool called a basin wrench.\u00a0 Ace sells a basin wrench but it is too small to fit that nut.<\/p>\n I go home and measure the nut.\u00a0 It’s metric.\u00a0 I need a basin wrench that fits a 36mm nut (just under one-and-a-half inches).\u00a0 Go to the web.\u00a0 It looks like Sears sells a basin wrench that (it claims) handles up to one-and-a-half inch nuts.\u00a0 Off to Sears and back home with a wrench.\u00a0 It works, the faucet is loose.<\/p>\n Now I need to take off the handle so that I can take apart the faucet so I can clean it up.\u00a0 Hmm, there is a nylon slotted-head screw I need to remove first.\u00a0 I rotate it nine or ten turns, but it doesn’t come out.\u00a0 The plumber must have stripped the threads on the screw when he installed the faucet.\u00a0 I’ll have to drill a hole in it and see if I can pry it out.<\/p>\n I get my drill and the smallest drill bit I can find, and I drill a hole in the center of the slot.\u00a0 I put the sharp end of a pick into the hole and out pops… a snap-in plastic plug.\u00a0 It was not a screw at all.\u00a0 It only had a slot on the head to, what, make it look like<\/em> a screw?\u00a0 Surprise!<\/p>\n Okay, this plastic piece is out, now I can get down to business.\u00a0 There is a set screw behind that plastic part, this is the screw I need to loosen so I can remove the handle and get to the rest of the faucet.\u00a0 Now this set screw has a hex-shaped socket-head.\u00a0 I think I am in good shape, since I have a whole set of hex wrenches that were left behind by the owner of my first home in 1976 and which I have held onto ever since.<\/p>\n I try the 1\/8″ hex wrench — hmm, doesn’t fit into the socket.\u00a0 I try the next smaller size, which is 7\/64″.\u00a0 (Note: I need to get out a magnifying glass to read the 7\/64 engraved into the side of the wrench.)\u00a0 This wrench grabs a little, but then lets go, grabs and lets go.\u00a0 The wrench is the wrong size.\u00a0 This must be a metric socket.\u00a0 Back to the internet.\u00a0 Yes, it must be a 3mm socket, halfway between 1\/8″ and 7\/64″.\u00a0 But, I don’t have<\/em> a 3mm hex wrench.\u00a0 I need a tool<\/em>.\u00a0 This time we go to Home Depot.\u00a0 Tomorrow, after a martini.<\/p>\n It is tomorrow.\u00a0 I now have a set of metric hex-wrenches from Home Depot.\u00a0 I am ready.\u00a0 The 3mm hex wrench turns out to be the right tool for the job, and the set screw loosens and the handle comes off.\u00a0 Now I look at the top of the faucet.\u00a0 Unbelievable.\u00a0 The screw that fastens the handle adapter to the stem of the faucet cartridge has a star-socket head.\u00a0 This is also known as a Torx<\/a> head.\u00a0 Torx-head screws were invented by engineers who didn’t want people like you and me touching their precious screws.\u00a0 Luckily, I have one of those 12-in-1 screwdriver gadgets that happens to include a Torx bit, so I can remove that annoying screw.<\/p>\n Not that it makes any difference.\u00a0 I can now see the faucet cartridge, but I can’t remove it before I unscrew a large retaining nut.\u00a0 I try to turn the nut but it is so tightly attached to the faucet that the whole faucet turns.\u00a0 Hmm.\u00a0 I originally loosened the faucet so I could remove the faucet so I could disassemble the faucet so I could clean the faucet.\u00a0 Maybe this was not such a good idea.\u00a0 So I went back to the basin wrench to retighten the faucet onto the countertop.\u00a0 Maybe that would let me loosen that nut that held the cartridge in place.<\/p>\n Nope, I still cannot get that retaining nut loose.\u00a0 I try to turn the nut and the whole faucet wants to turn.\u00a0 So I can’t remove the cartridge.\u00a0 And so I can’t take the spout off the faucet and inspect the O-rings and clean them.\u00a0 I am stuck.<\/p>\n Well, maybe I can do something about how the faucet valve slams shut when you shut off the flow.\u00a0 So I spray some WD-40 into the cartridge.\u00a0 Works on everything else, right?\u00a0 Hmm, didn’t seem to help much. Well, let’s put some WD-40 into that crack between the spout and the faucet body.\u00a0 Okay, the spout moves a little better than it used to, so let’s put everything back together and see how it all works.<\/p>\n I open the cold and hot water shutoff valves at the bottom of the cabinet and I hear flow.\u00a0 Moments later I hear the flow suddenly slow to a trickle.\u00a0 Now what?<\/p>\n I work the faucet lever open and closed, open and closed.\u00a0 No change.\u00a0 I open and close the hot and cold water shutoff valves a couple of times — maybe something is stuck there.\u00a0 Or maybe the seal in one of the shutoff valves crumbled as a result of being opened and closed too many times and fragments of it are now clogging the faucet cartridge.\u00a0 Could be.\u00a0 So I disconnect the water supply tube under the faucet, hoping to see a few chunks of debris come back out.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 I reconnect the water tube and try the faucet.\u00a0 Still only a trickle.<\/p>\n In desperation (what can it hurt?) I remove the faucet handle again and spray Fantastik cleaner into the top of the cartridge, thinking that this might help clean out the WD-40, if it was the WD-40 that got into the cartridge and reduced the flow to a trickle.\u00a0 No help.<\/p>\n So I re-install the handle and call the plumber.\u00a0 He will be here tomorrow at noon.<\/p>\n Lucy (of “I Love Lucy” fame) invariably made small problems bigger by her bumbling but well-meaning interventions.\u00a0 Lucy always wanted to prove a point and did things she had no business doing.\u00a0 Desi would have called a plumber right away.\u00a0 I called my inner Lucy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our kitchen faucet was not working very well.\u00a0 When you pushed the spout to either side, the whole faucet would turn.\u00a0 When you pushed the lever to shut off the water, the valve would snap shut so hard it made … Continue reading