Bathtub Drain Question:

[oldberkeley]

My daughter and son-in-law just bought a 1954 ranch, full basement with most of the ceiling drywalled.

Older tub and fixtures. No pop-up stopper so I imagine it's a lift bucket set-up. The drain trip lever moves up and down very grudgingly. I managed to get the tub to hold water, then had a hell of a time getting it to drain!

There is no access that I can find either to the back of the plumbing or underneath.

1. Can the entire trip lever, linkage and tee assembly be replaced without access?

2. If not, other than a rubber stopper , is there some type of manual stopper that can be retrofitted on the tub from the top?

TIA.

 

[bbrz]

My take from far away. Remove the face plate screws and pull up the stopper and linkage. If it is stuck, add some water down the tube, or WD. Flush out through the drain, and replace the trip lever with new. Generic trip levers work fine. If stuck, do not force it out!

 

[sixty4]

My daughter and son-in-law just bought a 1954 ranch, full basement with most of the ceiling drywalled.

Older tub and fixtures. No pop-up stopper so I imagine it's a lift bucket set-up. The drain trip lever moves up and down very grudgingly. I managed to get the tub to hold water, then had a hell of a time getting it to drain!

There is no access that I can find either to the back of the plumbing or underneath.

1. Can the entire trip lever, linkage and tee assembly be replaced without access?

2. If not, other than a rubber stopper , is there some type of manual stopper that can be retrofitted on the tub from the top?

TIA.

1) No if your thinking to replace the tee to match a new style tub linkage and barrel.
2) Yes they make these, https://www.plumbingsupply.com/flip-it-universal-tub-and-lavatory-stopper.html

I would think though the older style barrel part of the original pop-up may be ok. I would take it out and grease the linkage and try to adjust the old one, unless it is non-existent.

 

[oldberkeley]

Thanks to both of you for your answers.

I'm going to take the trip lever face plate off very gently, and then very gently see if the linkage and lift bucket (barrel) will come out.

The whole assembly is old. I'm worried that the linkage will break and the lift bucket fall into the tailpiece!

 

[mrDuffy]

Remove the trip lever and stopper barrel carefully. If you get rough with it will leak. take a small hand snake through the plate opening and you will probably find lots of hair that has built up over the years.clean out and flush with water reassemble and should be good.

 

[Richard Cranium]

be very careful if you break the linkage, the tub will not drain and you will be opening up under the tub to replace the entire drain assembly.

 

[The Cobbler]

any from the 50's era that I've seen are quite robust with heavy rods connecting the stopper to the lever. brass stopper slides up & down to open/close the drain. could be (very likely) full of sludge buildup .
the weak part of those is the tubular brass pipe connecting the overflow to the drain

 

[Shawn S]

How long do they plan to live there?
It's not the worst thing to have to cut into the basement ceiling. Take the plate off and do you best to fix it through there. If that doesn't work, go thru the ceiling.
If they don't plan to live there long do the rubber stopper. If they plan to be there a while, and you can't fix it from the stop, don't be afraid to go through the ceiling to fix it right.

 

[oldberkeley]

Richard- Exactly. I do not want the linkage to break and the lift bucket to fall into the tail piece!

Cobbler- Your answer really made me think about the situation and a thought actually entered my befuddled old mind: maybe it's just 30 years worth of sludge and hair! I described the trip lever as moving "grudgingly", but "mushily" would also describe it. I'm going to take the faceplate off and pour the best drain cleaner I can find down the overflow pipe.

Shawn- Agreed. Worse comes to worse, that's what I'll do.