Delta Shower Faucet and Valve- plummer botched?

twanto · 07-05-2009, 09:32 PM

The sellers of the house we now own hired a terrible plumber to fix the plumbing issues in our soon-to-be home. For example, left a water leak (either caused by him or ignored) at the valve in the front yard leaking. A lucky discovery, we found it just two weeks after we closed. Anyway, on to the shower issue.

I'm no plumber, but it looks to me like when this guy "fixed" the whistling noise from the shower (hard water buildup no doubt) he replaced some parts there were not compatible with the old stuff, but put it back on anyway. What I'm left with is what looks like a cartridge that does not match the handle of the shower- thus I can get it to work so that the water turns on but the temperature adjust does not work. I could be wrong though- attached are pictures.

I'd like to know if I'm wrong, first off. But if not, I'd like to know how to figure out what faucet would be compatible with this valve so I can replace it.

http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/582970469_i7Yds-L.jpg

That's what it looks like. I can't figure out how to remove any more of it from there. All I know is that the faucet handle, at least, is a Delta.

Now, the reason I think the handle doesn't match the cartridge is that they do not line up flush (and I'm pretty sure they did before we bought the house). Also it wouldn't make sense, such a large gap. Any ideas why this would be other than an idiot plumber?

http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/582989027_JvHr2-XL.jpg
This is as far as it will go, the cartridge plastic stuff is too large to fit through the little gear hole on the handle.
http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/582985910_JK7ZK-XL.jpg

breid · 07-06-2009, 08:29 AM

go to www.deltafaucet.com. then, repair parts. then, yes or no questions. try model 1323. then, parts diagram.... turn the water off.... the chrome "trim sleeve" (first pic) has to come off. it turns counter clockwise......................are there more parts that we not seeing?............be advised that if you don't have shut offs for the shower, you will be with out water until this put back together. have fun. breid

wrangler · 07-06-2009, 09:51 AM

I believe you are right. It looks like he replaced the cartridge with the wrong one. The handles you have are for the Delta that allows for both pressure and temperature control. It looks like the cartridge is for temp only, meaning that when you turn it, all the way left is for hot, middle for warm, but full pressure regardless. Turn off the water, pull that chrome sleeve off the valve (that is the chrome piece shown in the first pic, it just slides right off) Under that you will find a chrome ring that holds the cartridge into the valve. It turns counter-clockwise to remove and might require a pair of channel locks if the plumber install it tight. Then you can pull the cartridge out, take it AND the handles down to the hardware store and have them match you up with the proper cartridge for a Delta two piece handle valve (Temp Assure is their current name for it).
This link will help you if you are unsure of any part if this post and you can download the install instructions.

http://www.deltafaucet.com/customers...ocumentIndex=0

Good luck,
Brett

twanto · 08-08-2009, 09:04 PM

Thanks for the help so far. Talking to Delta on the phone they said the correct part was this one, which they sent me:

http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/614484440_U3SGH-M.jpg
http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/614484521_EEFzG-M.jpg

Here is the one that was in there:

http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/614484683_oHuKW-M.jpg

Now I can't figure out how the new one fits into the valve. The old one fit nicely with the two "legs" into the two "eyes" of the copper valve, shown here:

http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/614485052_Sbv4G-M.jpg

It seems that these seats and springs are supposed to go into those two holes on the left and right, but they are smaller and there is no obvious mechanical thing to hold them in place.

http://twanto.smugmug.com/photos/614484341_Vt8YD-M.jpg

So what I'm left with is trying to figure out how the supposed new and "correct" cartridge is supposed to seal with the valve fitting- the delta document with the cartridge is not helpful- it just says put the seat and springs and quad seal in. But in doing this it seems to me I would only be placing a few parts in there to jiggle around against a flat-ended cartridge that I don't even see how it would seal anything. It just doesn't make sense. Can anyone offer any advice?

In talking with Delta over the phone about this and describing in detail what I had in the wall and what it looked like they specifically told me the two legged thing was wrong and the one they sent me is the correct one. Please help!