My kitchen faucet has had a slow drip that is beginning to be a faster drip. The house is about 40 years old, and I doubt the faucet is original, but it is very old. I got under the sink, expecting to find it held in place by a nut, and I'd be able to twist it off, probably with quite a bit of force, but I found this:
It is possible there is a nut somewhere in that rust, but I sure wouldn't bet on it. Is there some other way this can be removed, or is it more likely I'm going to have to remove the whole basin and get the angle grinder out? I'd really rather not do that, as the builder was kind enough to not include cut off valves for the hot and cold water, so I have to shut off water to the entire house while this is out of commission. Not to mention, I suspect the drains in the double basin have not been disconnected since the house was new, so I'm afraid of breaking something when I start taking them apart.
The nut should be hiding under that yellow plastic thing. Use the lever to turn the nut. After half a turn, flip the lever over. Repeat.
Just hope that the nut isn't rusted into place.
My suggestion is to get two SharkBite valves, with the proper fittings on them. You kill the main water to the house, cut the rigid copper lines coming our of the floor and pop on the valves...no soldering necessary. Then you can turn the water back on and take your time on the sink. It has the added benefit of doing the job right so that you can replace or repair the sink whenever you want.
In reply to pinchvalve :
Good suggestion SharkBite stuff is expensive, but so awesome that it's worth every penny unless you plumb for a living.
Was hoping to avoid adding shut off valves, as I don’t think I’ll be in the house long enough to ever need to replace this thing again, but I will look into it, as it would make life a lot better if something goes wrong removing the old faucet. Since the water supply lines come up through the floor, is it safe to assume I can buy ones that flow straight through, instead of having the 90 degree angle pictured above?
Before I try turning that plastic lever, should I soak everything in Kroil or PB Blaster or something?
My guess is that those lines were soldered near the floor, and that plastic fitting is a quick-disconnect. Flip the lever down and it pops off. Then you can sweat the other end out. Or you have to sweat the other end out, then spin the whole line to remove. Either way, its an old and funky setup that is not worth keeping because it won't connect to a new faucet anyway. 
I’ve already got some new braided lines to replace the flexible copper lines. Those have a threaded fitting on them that goes to the hard copper lines, which has a plastic fitting they are threaded into.
I was wrong about the lines coming out of the floor, they are coming out of the wall, but one of them has a t fitting that splits off to go to into the floor, not sure if it’s the source, or if it’s another output. The lines that go up are also smaller than the full diameter, and fairly short, so I’m not sure what’s up with that. I’ll try to get another picture or two later.
Here's a couple more pics of the plumbing. The smaller pipes after the necked down joints are not very long, so I'm not sure how good of a candidate they are for having a compression fitting put on them. Any thoughts?
I shuffled some things around under the sink, and found a shut off valve, but then realized it was only for the dishwasher. It's attached to the pipe on the right.
If the faucet is just dripping, why not just replace the seals ? Most are easy to do
iceracer said:
If the faucet is just dripping, why not just replace the seals ? Most are easy to do
It’s pretty old and crusty at this point. I did look for a model number on it, too, but couldn’t find one, just the brand name. Not sure if that’s enough to get the right seals. I guess I could look online for a tutorial, but I’m also uncertain how to take it apart.
Faucet repair should easily found on the internet.
Ace hdw can match the seals.
OK, so it looks like the copper lines from the floor terminate with plastic threaded couplers...that's good. You can shut off all the water, unscrew those, then snip the corrugated copper lines and lift the sink out. (I am guessing that you cannot get to whatever is holding the faucet TO the sink) Then remove the faucet.
Now, cut the opening in the countertop larger so that you can access the underside of the new faucet!
Drop the sink back in, drop the new faucet on, then hook up the new lines.
Personally i’m scrapping everything i see and putting in an $89 sink and new plumbing with valves. It would probably take the same amount of time to do that, or try and get that old faucet off.
In reply to Patrick :
Is spacing/threads on the drain standardized on double basin sink drains? I’d hate this to become an even more extensive project. If the basin has to come out, I’m hopeful to just be able to cut the faucet free and replace it with the Delta one I picked up.
Trying to fix that will take way more time then buying a new sink and Faucet and swapping them both.
Time is money.
Fueled by Caffeine said:
Trying to fix that will take way more time then buying a new sink and Faucet and swapping them both.
Time is money.
I'd not object to that if I could be sure it's just a matter of disconnecting the source lines and disconnecting the drain pipes, then just reconnecting everything. My concern is when I start messing with a new basin that the drains aren't going to match up exactly the same, and I'll be left messing with pipes, and I really don't want to do that.
Edit: Just checked the fittings for the water source lines are female, whereas the standard flex lines I picked up are also female. So, I'm going to have to mess with them somehow. Beginning to think I just need to give up and pay a plumber.
old_
HalfDork
3/30/19 12:44 p.m.
In reply to eastsideTim :
It looks like you have 3/8 copper stubs where the flexible copper connects. You need to cut off the white plastic adapters and install these on the 3/8 copper :3/8 compression stop valve. They are very easy to install, no soldering required. How to compression stop video. Then you connect standard braided flex lines from the new valves to the faucet. (Just remove the nut on the valve then the flex line screws on to the male threads of the valve)
I would not try to adapt to the existing plastic fittings. They are old and probably brittle. I would not trust them. The 3/8 copper on the right is a little short but I think you should have enough.
Like others have said the nut that holds the faucet is under that yellow plastic thing. It's probably rusted. You might try a basin wrench if you can't get a socket on it. you might need to cut it off. You can get a 6-8” cutting wheel and cut the faucet off from the top of the sink and push the remains down through the hole if you don't want to pull the sink. Good luck
Not sure how this got bumped up from over a year ago. I ended up hiring a plumber to replace the faucet and basin.
eastsideTim said:
Not sure how this got bumped up from over a year ago. I ended up hiring a plumber to replace the faucet and basin.
There was a canoe recommending that you hire a plumber.
