Bath faucet pop-up drain rod won't fit sink hole location

seavlad

Replacing the bath faucet on a 40 yo sink with 4"centerset design with center hole for pop-up drain rod. All the faucets I've tried have the rod going through the sink at too much an angle for where the hole is placed. It's as if the rod needs to go vertically up/down instead of at an angle for the size/offset of the hole.

Are these rods meant to be bent to navigate the sink hole?

I've switched to a 2-lever faucet from the original 1-lever, Are the 1-level faucets designed with a more vetical rod that would work better on my sink?

Lightfoot

The ones i have replaced sometimes don't line up, but there should be a metal bracket (which hooks to the horizontal rod coming out of the popup---it joins the two rods) which i have had to bend to mate up with the rod coming down from the top. I would think if you bent the rod itself, it probably wouldn't slide easily. The metal bracket should have numerous holes in it for adjustment, possibly a screw of some type in the u-shaped end, and a clip which will attach the straight end to the popup rod. You can also possibly see if you can find a smaller diameter rod and that will give you just a tad more room to straighten through the hole.

broox

Once I had to drill a hole in the vanity top to make the popup rod work.

seavlad

I just picked up an American Standard faucet with the Speed Connect system at HD. It uses a cable to control the pop-up which should work better for my small diameter off-center hole.

thanks for all your feedback and I'll make sure to share my experience with the Speed Connect system

broox

I am not trying to rain on your parade, but that Am Stan faucet popup requires a pretty big hole to get the thingamajig through to attach to the whatchamacallit on the popup assembly.

What is the vanity top made of?

seavlad

thanks for the heads up, I only referenced the online instructions which made it look pretty small. the sink is an old cast iron... But this project is only temporary until we remodel the bathroom in a couple years (yes, I know a couple can mean a couple decades).

either way I'll be home in an hour and I'll know hands on... stay tuned

broox

Good luck!!

seavlad

thanks for all the input... turns out the faucet went in great! Because it used a cable to control the drain, it had enough play to go into the small center hole.

so if you run into a similar problem, I might suggest a SpeedConnect faucet.