I have been following your thread and haven’t posted in a while.
First off you do understand the type of snake you have with the spring on the end needs to be twisted and pushed at the same time to snake around corners. I see you said it stopped at the first turn.
Secondly I feel you have a lot of fear about taking on these projects and I suspect the anxiety will only build as you dig into this. Stuff is going to stick and not come apart and when it does come apart it may break and leave you needing to come up with plan B, C, D etc. It never goes to plan and it almost always involves more driving back and forth for parts than actual wrenching.
You want to get this working to hold you over till you do a major job later. So don’t be afraid to think outside the long term repair box. Do a google search on Fernco Couplings and look at all the sizes and shapes out there. These things can save the day when dealing with old crusty work. They also will bend a little and make things line up that don’t.
Most important is have some old rags handy to plug the pipe when you have to go back for parts so the sewer gas doesn’t come out.
Just rip into it and look at it as a fun adventure. You will build up your confidence and in no time you will be telling others how to fix their plumbing.
Thanks for the very sage words.
I must have played with that dang auger/snake thing for over an hour, pulling, pushing, twisting, and doing everything else I could think of, short of dancing an Irish Jig on the countertop to get it to go farther in than it did. My wife said that I probably hit the obstruction, and she just might be on to something, based on some of the videos I've seen. She's a smart woman, in spite of the fact that she married me. I wonder if there isn't a quarter-inch hole in the middle of all that crud(e) inside the 2 inch cast iron pipe. I wouldn't be a bit surprised.
I do have a fair amount of worry about this. Almost every other project I've attempted in this house has ended up getting to a point where I either didn't have something I needed to continue, or the project mushroomed into me having to do far more than I was willing or able to commit to doing. Case in point: The very first thing I started to fix before we even got fully moved in, was the rod in a closet in the spare bedroom. The seller, in his haste to get the house sold, just cut two holes in the drywall, and ran a large dowel through them. I was going to put a pair of proper rod-holders in, but the framing inside the closet isn't remotely close to standard building practices, and I couldn't find any studs to which I could attach anything. I used a dental mirror to look inside the drywall, and only saw two studs. One at the back corner, and one about 6" from it. Nothing else. So, I stopped work on that one, because we were still moving things. Now, nearly six months later, other, more important jobs have come up, and that closet still isn't fixed. I've got this @#$%& plumbing thing to figure out, a kitchen to remodel, a wall between the dining room and kitchen to remove, a garden/tool shed to build, and every other thing that homeowners have to do for maintenance. Paint, carpeting, you name it.
You wouldn't believe the problems I've had with the electrical wiring. The seller's real estate agent asked to delay closing for 30 days so they could "complete the rewiring of the house to bring it up to code." I wonder what they did with all that time, because I've got poor quality outlets and switches (I've already replaced nine of them) and a couple of light fixtures that didn't work or weren't connected to switches. One breaker shuts off all the lights in the house, but it takes five more breakers to kill all the outlets. And even then, I still have some outlets that are hot, no matter what breaker I throw in the panel. I had to go outside to the main breaker to shut off all the power to the house to kill them so they could be replaced. I've got bare wires hanging from a junction box in the utility room, covered by an old ceramic bulb fixture that wasn't even hooked up. The wiring for the dishwasher is just wire-nutted and electrical taped under the cabinet. Not hooked to anything. I have outlets that have no power, switches that turn nothing on or off, and still a couple of fixtures that no matter what, don't light up. This house is nowhere near electrical code, and I'm about to go after the seller's electrician.
So I hope it's understandable why I have a little "fear" about taking on something as important as major plumbing. I've already replaced all the guts in the tank of the toilet, and installed a new shower head and the faucet fixture in the bath. The dishwasher (not that we ever use it) is just sitting in the cabinet, not even hooked up to any power, or hooked up to any water, or any drain. I know what Ferncos are, and thanks for suggesting them. I used one to repair the terra cotta sewer line at my old house almost 15 years ago. Had to drive to Atlanta to get a 6-inch one, but I got it, and it worked as advertised. Just a few days ago, a guy in the plumbing department at the hardware store suggested I tear out all the cast iron I could reach, and replace it with ABS. He told me to use them to connect the ABS fittings to the cast iron I couldn't get to. I hadn't thought of that.
For most of my adult life, I did all the major and minor repairs to my previous house, the one my parents bought in 1967. I've put in ceiling fans, replaced the dishwasher, washing machine, repaired the dryer, replaced two toilets, repaired the main sewer line, repaired the drain for the laundry, put in two pool liners, rewired the whole garage, re-roofed the carriage house, and almost everything else. I handled everything there, and thought that I knew my way around most home repairs. That is, until I bought this house. There was no way for us to know this, because no job had ever been started by us, but there is almost nothing that is "standard" in this structure. Most of the interior walls aren't plaster or drywall. They are stain-grade plywood. I found out last week from the Tax Assessor's office that their records show it is supposed to have a fireplace. I have no idea where one could go, because there's no place for one, structurally. Don't get me wrong, this house is a lovely little cottage on a quiet street, not far from shopping and our workplaces, the kitchen is beautifully laid out (just needs new doors and drawer fronts, and a new countertop), the bath is mostly trouble free, but it's the screwiest building I have ever seen in terms of what is where, and how it was built. Did they even know what they were doing in 1951? Sometimes I don't think so. I've seen homes built in the 1820s that are easier to deal with than this one.
I would never dream of telling anyone how to do their plumbing. Not being a plumber, it would be arrogant as hell of me to even think of it. I could share my experience, the screw-ups I've committed, and relate stories of what not to do, but that's about it. I fully intend to try to have a little fun doing this, and I don't have to tell you that there is no better feeling than the Godlike Feeling of Power that you get from finishing a job when everything works and there are no parts or screws left over. In truth, I'd wager that there is going to be a huge amount of bourbon consumed before this is all over.
I apologize for writing War and Peace, but I had to vent a little. You've given me some great advice, and I do intend to follow it. Thank you.