Delta two handle faucet - drip, drip, drip

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Sparky617

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My Delta two handle faucet started leaking last week. So I installed new faucet seats and springs in both the hot and cold side. They were getting a little crusty, and would make your fingers/hands black as you handled them.
The hot side is fine now, it was initially the one that was leaking, confirmed by turning the supply off one side at a time. The cold side was fine for a while, then it started leaking again. I pulled it apart and reassembled it and it stopped leaking again, until last night. Now it is a pretty steady drip. What am I missing here? Can the universal stem assembly be bad? It doesn't look bad, the O-ring is intact.

This isn't exactly what it looks like, mine is old enough (18 years) that it still has more metal parts.

https://www.efaucets.com/detail.asp...24270&ef_id=VnsZJwAABDntpHAz:20170821144402:s

Is there some trick to this relatively simple operation that I'm missing?
 
It could be, but you may also have some random aggregate floated loose from the angle stop, so open the angle stop with the cold stem removed to flush it out.

Have some towels ready.
 
are the springs, that are under the rubber seat, oriented correctly?

take it apart, use a dab of vaseline on the rubber seats, verify springs are in the correct position.

also , dab the o ring, yours might be binding and rolling
 
I oriented it the same way it came out, the spring was cone shaped with the wider base down, with the rubber faucet seat on top, with the cup part facing down. I'm going to try taking it apart one more time a sucking all the water out with my wet/dry vac to get an idea what is going on inside. The O-ring seems fine. I may just pop over to Lowe's and pick up a new stem assembly. I have 5 of these faucets in the house. 2 in both full baths and 1 in the powder room. This is the only one acting up, but the rubber bits are all 18 years old so I suspect more replacements will be needed before too long.
 
Update
I pulled it apart and made sure there wasn't a debris in it. I reassembled it with a different rubber faucet seat, this one was a little shorter, same diameter. It worked overnight, no drips. I just went into the bathroom and it had a steady stream. I suspect if I pull it apart again and put it back together it will work for several hours. I'm going to get a new assembly and start over. This shouldn't be that complicated.
 
remove the faucet and replace
 
it sounds to me like the seat, where the rubber cup is seated is maybe in need of a honing tool.

you say it works the first time, then when used it leaks, check if the surface is not rough, and cutting the rubber

calcium buildup? or just wore out?

when i click the link you provided, i get page not found
 
That requires replacing two faucets, the tub filler and the shower unit as I won't be able to find a match.

If you stay within the delta family you are likely to find matching finishes, but you'll never know, unless you try.
 
I replaced the Delta Faucet RP25513 Universal Stem Assembly and a new rubber seat and spring over the weekend. So far so good. There wasn't any roughness, or build-up in side the faucet. A visual inspection of the old stem assembly seemed OK, not sure what the issue was but we now have all new guts to the cold side and no drips.
 

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