shower head tube to riser 90 cx

the first two letters of diy are d and i, so that makes it a dirty word 40% of the time.

my bathroom saga is entering the final conflict.
There are two concerns here: the first is a request for opinion or soothing words. the 2nd is more procedural

1) the shower tile was installed without the shower head tube sticking out of the wall. ie. that cx was not leak tested before closing up.

now i'm trying to be sure the shower head tube will not leak in the wall where it meets 90deg fitting.

If i need to I can get at the backside of the fitting through drywall.

i shoved some paper towel in the tile side, ptfe'd the shower tube, screwed it in. ran it a bit, pulled the paper out - still dry. yay. -- but it was only 10 or 15 seconds.

I may just be paranoid, but the only thing worse than a leak -- is a small leak that goes undiscovered for a _long_ time.

i'm going to run it longer with a q-tip up against the fitting. Opinions? ideas?

2) that same shower head tube has a bend in it to allow for the shower head to point downward.
When I screw it in I only about 3+ turns. but the plus there causes the tube to not point down, backing off to 6 o'clock leaves the shower head tube fairly loose (but not leaking (as described above).

someone is going to adjust the shower head at some point -- and further move the shower head tube since its not cinched.

instructions I've read say to hand tighten the shower head tube -- then use a strap wrench to get another quarter turn. test it, if it leaks, another quarter turn. I need over 3 quarter turns to get back to 6 o'clock.

What's the wisdom on that much tightening with a strap wrench? will i torque the fitting off of the riser tube? strip the threads of the fitting and/or tube?

there are at least 7 threads on the tube and roughly the same on the fitting. maybe a little less ptfe (i think I've got, maybe, 6 wraps). but that stuff is so thin i can't imagine backing off to 3 or 4 would help.

thanks folks.

There is not a lot of water pressure on the that joint, plus it only has water in it when taking a shower.

yeah, I can get by the shower head dripping a bit at the tube/head cx but not in the wall where the tube meets the elbow.

hand tight without tape the tube will turn 4 1/2x (points at the ceiling). with tape its about 3 1/8 to 1/4

I put the head on (to increase the back pressure) and got a damp q-tip in the wall with the tube properly oriented at 6 o'clock (3 turns w/ tape).

i'm going to try some dope (the plumbing kind)...

You might try less wraps of ptfe tape. Six seems excessive, and you might get that extra little bit of torque. In the past I considered shaving the end of the tube ever so slightly to get that extra half-turn. That's assuming you have enough thread to spare. Never had to try it though.

one 0or 2 wraps of tape is good.

install the shower head arm..into the hole..get it started..hand tighten

shove, the handle of your plyers into the hole. and use the plyers as a "handle" to turn the arm till it is oriented in the correct position

do not tighten gorilla tight,,,not necessary
but do not leave it sloppy loose either.

when you grab the head to adjust it...it needs to not move

thanks everyone for the help. I'd considered, I think all the suggestions. I'd previously, in other apps, used one or two wraps of tape-- and had little success - ending up replacing a fitting (airsoft gun), and going with dope (outside frostfree bib). In this effort I'd come a cross an iplumber who said, use 5-10+ wraps. given my experience he'd seem sage.
so my 2nd to last attempt had 12 (chubby little bugger) -- amazing it was pretty tight at 3 wraps. I realized if I make it even fatter I should be able to reduce 3+ to a tight 3. the 12 w
rap still produced a very tiny drip after 30 seconds. So, I went deeper, finished a roll of tape on 16 wraps. And this was nearly gorilla tight and spot on 6'oclock. Took a shower (first in 15 months. Yay!) checked thepaper towel I'd shoved up under the cx (I took a section of drywall down from the opposite wall) and it was dry like desert. Double yays!
I'd thought about what it would take to (re-)thread/shave the pipe to get it to where I needed it -- but as a kid I'd tried that with bike axles and other bike bolts with dismal success. And given how much trouble I had getting the tape on the fittings (is it clockwise or c-clockwise?) I wasn't gonna mess with cutting metal.

I'm so set to have this bathroom _done_. I've got the fourth plague coming: window&trim&drywall -- then a thousand flushes of peace. Wisdom comes from " measure 6, cut 10"