This time I decided to do it myself, and let dad enjoy his Sunday morning...and afternoon...I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.
I have one of these in my toilet tank:
It's your classic float ball set-up. Well, many months earlier I purchased a unit to replace it, as shown below:
Behold the FLUID MASTER!! It's just a better mousetrap. Well, because I'm known to procrastinate, I never replaced the old set-up, and things were going fine...until the night of the party (Gillespie:Unplugged )
Now, I don't want to go blaming anyone for "breaking" the toilet, because truth be told, the flush valve was hooked to the flush handle with a piece of plastic, which just broke...so, Sue, I will not bring up the party responsible in any fashion whatsoever, because, Sue, it could have happened to anyone.
So, anyway, Becky told me the toliet was broken at the beginning of the party. I was able to rig it up to still flush, cautiously, and it made it through the night. Sunday, after I cleaned up the aftermath of the party, I decided to upgrade to the Fluid Master.
Should only take about 20 minutes, right?
Step 1: Turn off water. Check.
Step 2: Empty tank completely. Check.
Step 3: Remove old fill valve.
It was step three. Damn step three. I was twisting that fill valve for all I was worth, and it was NOT budging. I twisted and turned and pulled. No dice. I put the wrench in the toilet tank and twisted. That's when I heard a crack...I broke the overflow tube...cracked it right off.
(overflow tube: white tube. Flush Valve: Red thingy, technical term of course)
After a few minutes of cussing and slamming things, I discovered what most of you probably already know...there is a lock nut under the toilet tank. I tried to loosen it up, but again, no luck. I did the only thing I could think of...I took the whole toilet tank off, turned it upside down, and unscrewed the lock nut. (Bet you thought I was going to say "I called my dad" don't you!!)
I finally removed the old fill valve, replaced it with the Fluid Master, and made a trip to Lowe's to replace the broken overflow tube and flush valve. I return home, replace the broken parts, and hand tighten things up per directions, so as not to "crack the porcelein." I reattached the tank to the toilet, and the water supply line.
I went down and turned the water back on, and ran upstairs to find the water line spewing water!! I ran back down, turned the water back off, ran back upstairs, emptied the tank again, and tightened the lock nut WITH THE WRENCH and the supply line WITH THE WRENCH...screw this hand tightening crap.
Another trip to turn the water back on...SUCCESS!!
Or so I thought.
A few hours later, I saw a little water leaking...from the replaced flush valve UNDER THE TANK!! That's right, folks, I had to turn off the water AGAIN, empty the tank AGAIN, remove the tank AGAIN and tighten the flush valve lock nut. I reassembled, turned the water back on and I'll be a monkey's uncle...it still leaked!!
Turn off the water...
Empty tank...
Remove the tank...
Tighten lock nut WITH WRENCH...
Return tank...
Turn water back on...
This time, it was fine.
THREE HOURS LATER!!!!!!!! Yes, Sue, it only cost $5, but it took me 3 HOURS...not that I'm blaming Sue, of course, cause it could have happened to anybody.
Next time, I think I'll call Dad.
3 comments:
While I am very sorry for ruining your Sunday afternoon, I must say I had quite a laugh while reading the story. I do want to congratulate you for fixing the problem by yourself! Way to go T! By the way, the party was really fun, and you did a great job singing and playing. Thanks for the good time.
Oh no.. I did the same exact thing. I suppose this is going to be a REAL pain in the rear. Even worse... after over an hour of googling, this is the first site that describes my pain. Thanks for the info!
finally someone who has described exactly what happened to me. lets see how lucky i am. i am going to try and get this thing off. thank you
Post a Comment