I have once again come across a frustrating happenstance, where an older household item eventually needs some sort of repair, only to find that it is nearly impossible to find a *simple* replacement part and thus one must do a near or total replacement of an item for want of a painfully simple part.
My home came with Mansfield toilets. There is a flush valve that is a bell below a long tube that rides up and down on a metal pipe. The tube is centered on the metal pipe by three plastic projections from the inner edge of the tube, at 120 degrees from the others.
Over time, those plastic projections wear away, and the flush valve no longer centers when it drops and doesn’t seat and seal.
I thought that this part should be available. Nope. One has to buy the whole assembly necessitating removing the tank to replace the tank portion as well as the flush valve portion. The center metal pipe is now a plastic triangular rod. Yay.
I was convinced that I must have a spare something that could remedy this, so I checked my parts bins. I found a single hole rubber stopper... Eureka.
I had to drill out and enlarge the center hole of the stopper to match the diameter of the metal tube and I also had to Dremel off the plastic projections in the flush valve.
I slid the rubber stopper to the bottom of the pipe, large end down, and replaced the flush valve.
Unfortunately I found that the flush valve would shift sideways and hang on the upper surface of the stopper. Digging in the parts bins again, I found a 3" length of clear plastic tube from an old aquarium filter that was the right size to fit over the narrow end of the stopper, and extend far enough up so that the flush valve stayed centered on it.
With this plastic pipe in place the flush valve would rise up to drain the tank, and then slide down and seat properly. No disassembling the tank from the bowl and removing the tank portion of the flush valve. Yay!
Not sure if this will help anybody, but on the chance it does...
My home came with Mansfield toilets. There is a flush valve that is a bell below a long tube that rides up and down on a metal pipe. The tube is centered on the metal pipe by three plastic projections from the inner edge of the tube, at 120 degrees from the others.
Over time, those plastic projections wear away, and the flush valve no longer centers when it drops and doesn’t seat and seal.
I thought that this part should be available. Nope. One has to buy the whole assembly necessitating removing the tank to replace the tank portion as well as the flush valve portion. The center metal pipe is now a plastic triangular rod. Yay.
I was convinced that I must have a spare something that could remedy this, so I checked my parts bins. I found a single hole rubber stopper... Eureka.
I had to drill out and enlarge the center hole of the stopper to match the diameter of the metal tube and I also had to Dremel off the plastic projections in the flush valve.
I slid the rubber stopper to the bottom of the pipe, large end down, and replaced the flush valve.
Unfortunately I found that the flush valve would shift sideways and hang on the upper surface of the stopper. Digging in the parts bins again, I found a 3" length of clear plastic tube from an old aquarium filter that was the right size to fit over the narrow end of the stopper, and extend far enough up so that the flush valve stayed centered on it.
With this plastic pipe in place the flush valve would rise up to drain the tank, and then slide down and seat properly. No disassembling the tank from the bowl and removing the tank portion of the flush valve. Yay!
Not sure if this will help anybody, but on the chance it does...
