Faucets

Yesterday it was 15° cooler than it has been so I was inspired to do a little boatwork in the now 85° temps. I undertook faucet replacements for both the galley and head.

I seldom go in with guns blazing, I'll almost always try a little finesse first. The package for the new fixtures said I'd need a scraper, adjustable wrench and safety glasses...and don't forget the (flexible) supply hoses which were not included.

I decided to do the galley first. I've replaced these before. Turn off the water, undo the supply hoses and twist off the large hold down nuts on the underside of the counter. This can be a little cumbersome, because there's never enough room between the sink and wall to get hands or tools up in there comfortably.

The first discovery on this 40 year old fixture was that there is no supply hose. The flared copper line attaches directly to the fixture. Those fittings weren't too difficult to remove even considering the fight with the adjustment on the adjustable wrench while jamming my head sideways between the shelves and then not having any room for my arms/hands.

I thought it would be wise to leave the copper line in place while I removed the big nuts holding the fixture to the counter. I couldn't get the adjustable wrench up in there at all so a trip to the shop to get an open end wrench and a beer ensued. I always get a handful of wrenches because I have no talent in choosing the correct size, but none of them fit.

I went to the shop entertaining the idea of making a custom wrench for the job, but decided to pull the copper lines away and undo the nuts with a socket.

I went back to the boat with a handfull of sockets and another beer. None of the sockets I tried fit well enough to move the stubborn nut.

OK, so another trip to the shop to get some deepwell sockets and another you know what.

The 1 1/8" deepwell would only bump it's way around the locked tight nut. The 1 1/16 wouldn't go over the nut. Could these damn things be metric? Only one way to find out...

Big sockets are seldom used, and even less used are the big metric ones, but I had previously needed a 1+" socket and had gone to Harbor Freight with my 20% off coupon to buy a set. They were out of stock on the american size but the nut I had brought as a sample fit well enough in one of the metric sockets, so I bought the 3/4" drive metric set.

So now I'm wedged under the counter with this humoungous 3/4" drive and guess what? I find the 27mm socket fits perfectly. Hooray! I need to trade the breaker bar for the ratchet because there's no room to move the huge breaker bar, then get ready to break her loose.

A little grunt and she finally moves. A few clicks of the ratchet and I get her turning, but something doesn't feel right. I learn that the nut is not coming loose, the whole fitting is turning inside the fixture.

Back to the shop for a big pair of vicegrips to hold the top part from turning and another well earned beer. Finally the nut comes off. The other side of the fixture didn't stand a chance because the finesse was well behind me and I had reloaded both guns.

OK, now how to reattach the new faucet? Should I just run the copper up to the inlet on the new faucet? But wait, the new facuet isn't designed to take a flared fitting. Maybe I could take the plastic flair adapter out of the old faucet fitting and use it in the new faucet. But alas, the adapter doesn't fit into the new faucet.

I dug up a couple 1/2" plastic close nipples which would accept the plastic flare adapters.

I fitted the adapter to the nipple and screwed the nipple onto the flared copper line, then fitted the supply hose, which in turn connected to the inlet of the new fixture. Oops, I was so excited I forgot to put the big nuts on first - take it apart and screw the fixture to the counter, then reattach the supply.

Now onto the head.
I took the door off the cabinet then had a good look at what was in store.

This would be a piece of cake - easy access and plenty of clearance and my 27mm socket was handy. The extraction of this fixture was straightforward and accomodating, but I did notice that the flexible hose for the fuel tank vent was severely kinked...

I decided to modify the head fixture to take the flare adapter. This meant relieving the intake diameter about 1/16" which I did by hand with a drill bit in the vice.

Now the new head faucet would take the flare adapters fitted with a little caulk.

I thought it odd that these fixtures only needed 1/4 turn from off to full on and there was a solid stop in each direction. It turns out that these cheap plastic fixtures use a sliding valve, not the traditional screw down type. What do you want for $9?

I then started playing with R2D2, but that's an entry for a different day.