Wolverine Marc
New Member
A quick Google search will show there is tremendous frustration with Kohler one-piece toilets when it comes time to replace the toilet seat. Where on most toilets the bolts go through the toilet and you secure them with wingnuts or something similar on the bottom of the toilet, with this design the bolts simply go into an anchor. In theory, removing them is as simple as unscrewing them. However, as noted in a couple of excellent threads here, Kohler also made the mistake of having aluminum anchors and stainless steel bolts, which are a wonderful recipe to create corrosion. Thus, must people will find that the can't unscrew the bolts at all (the fact they tend to use flat head bolts instead of Phillips Head doesn't help) - they won't turn - or they just turn and turn and turn, because the bolt basically broke.
We have a bunch of Kohler Rialto one piece toilets and over the years have had to replace cracked toilet seats on four of them. It's not a fun experience, but was livable for the first three. This last one was a killer, however. I share this post in hopes it will save others time and money. I spent about 8 hours over three days on this last one, and am now the proud owner of several tools I didn't need, but wasn't aware of what would work. If I need to do this again, I am guessing it will take one hour now that I know what to do.
Step 1: For all Kohler one-piece toilet bolt and anchor removals where it just won't unscrew, it will start with needing to break off the current toilet seat. When you do, you will be left with the plastic latches around the current bolts.
Advice: Before you break the seat off, grip it as close to the bolts as you can and pull up as hard as you can. Twist it left and right while doing so. For most of the bolts, doing this will help the bolts start to come out. Even if they only lift up an extra 1/8th of an inch, it helps with how you will get them out later.
Step 2: Take a hacksaw and cut through the remaining plastic. because of how the bolt and washer overhang the plastic, it's likely you will have to make several cuts to get it fully off.
Advice: put masking tape or painter's tape on the porcelain around the bolts as best you can. It will help avoid accidentally scratching it.
Step 3: Take a vice grip or great pair of pliers and pull up on the bolt. Most likely, it will take a very strong yank to get the darn thing out. Not only is the bolt corroded with the anchor, the anchor also is corroded with the Porcelain and will need the adhesion broken. For most of the ones I had to do, I was able to get the bolt out with a fair amount of effort just pulling up on with a vice grip.
Advice: because you are pulling so hard, when it comes out it very well may fly off the wrench and across the room, up to the ceiling, etc. If anyone is with you, have them stand back.
Advice: Take the top cover off before you do the bolt removal. Nothing like hitting the lid with the wrench or your hands, knocking it off to the floor and having it break into pieces. These are not cheap to replace.
If the vice grip is not working, use a crow bar to pry it out.
Advice: Be sure that you not only have taped the porcelain, but you are using a piece of wood or something similar under the crow bar or you will majorly scratch the toilet. I used a cardboard box - thick enough to protect, but thin enough to allow me as much room as possible to get the crow bar under the bolt.
Step 4: If the above doesn't work, you now have to figure out how to get the pesky stuck bolt and anchor out. Kohler says to drill through it. I say HAH, HAH, HAH, HAH, HAH! That's rich! Here is the problem. Drilling through a stainless steel bolt is very difficult. and the length you need to drill is large enough you will likely break several drill bits and dull others. In my case, the top of the bolt cracked off as I was trying to pull it out with the vice grips, so I was left with a very uneven surface. Getting a drill bit not to "walk" on an uneven surface - forget it. I tried several bits. Titantium, Cobalt, etc. They whittled a way at it, but it would have taken hours upon hours and huge numbers of bits to fully drill through. All the time fighting through the "walking" problem of the drill bit on the uneven surface.
So what to do? Kohler tells you to get a 5/16 drill bit to drill through the bolt. Then use an 11/32 bit to drill through the anchor. Either the folks at Kohler have an evil sense of humor, or they are smoking some interesting stuff over there in Wisconsin. Don't try either. Save your money.
After a couple of nights of thinking this through before falling asleep, I finally had an epiphany: the stainless steel bolts are incredibly hard to drill - stainless steel anything is hard to drill, but particularly this thick. But the aluminum anchors - that's a reasonably soft metal. I took a 1/4 inch cobalt drill bit and starting drilling out the anchor. it lips over the porcelain, so you need to go slowly and gently, but it stripped away very fast! Now I just had a bolt sticking out of the remaining anchor, but nothing was overlapping the top of the toilet form the anchor anymore. And I hadn't cracked the porcelain, which would be a problem to insert new anchors when done.
I then took a 3/32 titanium bit (Cobalt would work too) and starting drilling holes around the bolt, into the remaining anchor, basically between the bolt and the porcelain. I drilled far enough down that I then was able to spray penetrating oil (don't use WD oil, that won't work) . I let it sink in and start to eat at the corrosion between the anchor and the porcelain.
After letting it sit a while ( and a few repeat sprays), I then took a mallet, a screwdriver and a 3/32 wratchet screwdriver insert which I was using to have something to go over the bolt and allow me to drive it through the hole. Three hard taps later, it dropped harmlessly into the one piece toilet.
Now I was free to use the replacement anchor kit #84999 and then put on the new seat.
I hope this saves some time and money for some of you!
We have a bunch of Kohler Rialto one piece toilets and over the years have had to replace cracked toilet seats on four of them. It's not a fun experience, but was livable for the first three. This last one was a killer, however. I share this post in hopes it will save others time and money. I spent about 8 hours over three days on this last one, and am now the proud owner of several tools I didn't need, but wasn't aware of what would work. If I need to do this again, I am guessing it will take one hour now that I know what to do.
Step 1: For all Kohler one-piece toilet bolt and anchor removals where it just won't unscrew, it will start with needing to break off the current toilet seat. When you do, you will be left with the plastic latches around the current bolts.
Advice: Before you break the seat off, grip it as close to the bolts as you can and pull up as hard as you can. Twist it left and right while doing so. For most of the bolts, doing this will help the bolts start to come out. Even if they only lift up an extra 1/8th of an inch, it helps with how you will get them out later.
Step 2: Take a hacksaw and cut through the remaining plastic. because of how the bolt and washer overhang the plastic, it's likely you will have to make several cuts to get it fully off.
Advice: put masking tape or painter's tape on the porcelain around the bolts as best you can. It will help avoid accidentally scratching it.
Step 3: Take a vice grip or great pair of pliers and pull up on the bolt. Most likely, it will take a very strong yank to get the darn thing out. Not only is the bolt corroded with the anchor, the anchor also is corroded with the Porcelain and will need the adhesion broken. For most of the ones I had to do, I was able to get the bolt out with a fair amount of effort just pulling up on with a vice grip.
Advice: because you are pulling so hard, when it comes out it very well may fly off the wrench and across the room, up to the ceiling, etc. If anyone is with you, have them stand back.
Advice: Take the top cover off before you do the bolt removal. Nothing like hitting the lid with the wrench or your hands, knocking it off to the floor and having it break into pieces. These are not cheap to replace.
If the vice grip is not working, use a crow bar to pry it out.
Advice: Be sure that you not only have taped the porcelain, but you are using a piece of wood or something similar under the crow bar or you will majorly scratch the toilet. I used a cardboard box - thick enough to protect, but thin enough to allow me as much room as possible to get the crow bar under the bolt.
Step 4: If the above doesn't work, you now have to figure out how to get the pesky stuck bolt and anchor out. Kohler says to drill through it. I say HAH, HAH, HAH, HAH, HAH! That's rich! Here is the problem. Drilling through a stainless steel bolt is very difficult. and the length you need to drill is large enough you will likely break several drill bits and dull others. In my case, the top of the bolt cracked off as I was trying to pull it out with the vice grips, so I was left with a very uneven surface. Getting a drill bit not to "walk" on an uneven surface - forget it. I tried several bits. Titantium, Cobalt, etc. They whittled a way at it, but it would have taken hours upon hours and huge numbers of bits to fully drill through. All the time fighting through the "walking" problem of the drill bit on the uneven surface.
So what to do? Kohler tells you to get a 5/16 drill bit to drill through the bolt. Then use an 11/32 bit to drill through the anchor. Either the folks at Kohler have an evil sense of humor, or they are smoking some interesting stuff over there in Wisconsin. Don't try either. Save your money.
After a couple of nights of thinking this through before falling asleep, I finally had an epiphany: the stainless steel bolts are incredibly hard to drill - stainless steel anything is hard to drill, but particularly this thick. But the aluminum anchors - that's a reasonably soft metal. I took a 1/4 inch cobalt drill bit and starting drilling out the anchor. it lips over the porcelain, so you need to go slowly and gently, but it stripped away very fast! Now I just had a bolt sticking out of the remaining anchor, but nothing was overlapping the top of the toilet form the anchor anymore. And I hadn't cracked the porcelain, which would be a problem to insert new anchors when done.
I then took a 3/32 titanium bit (Cobalt would work too) and starting drilling holes around the bolt, into the remaining anchor, basically between the bolt and the porcelain. I drilled far enough down that I then was able to spray penetrating oil (don't use WD oil, that won't work) . I let it sink in and start to eat at the corrosion between the anchor and the porcelain.
After letting it sit a while ( and a few repeat sprays), I then took a mallet, a screwdriver and a 3/32 wratchet screwdriver insert which I was using to have something to go over the bolt and allow me to drive it through the hole. Three hard taps later, it dropped harmlessly into the one piece toilet.
Now I was free to use the replacement anchor kit #84999 and then put on the new seat.
I hope this saves some time and money for some of you!
