Advice - Difficult Access Sockets for 1/2" and 3/4" tap nuts?

[bilabonic]

Hi All

Looking to replace taps on a cast iron bath, accessing them is near impossible (i even had to remove toilet). The taps are old lifter type with brass 3/4" nuts that seem welded on! The basin is much the same tbh.

I have a tap remover set like this and after 10 mins of finally getting it on the nut it will not budge as i can not apply enough pressure (doing it 'blind' with my arm fully extended/no 'purchase') to release the nut and i presume it will be like this for the whole length of the tap thread.


I then came across this set that i thin would do it but i do not need the wrench/bars etc, just the ends as i have a few good quality socket sets.

Todays Tools Professional Tap Back Nut and 15mm - 22mm Spanner Set for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Todays Tools Professional Tap Back Nut and 15mm - 22mm Spanner Set at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

So i searched just for the 1/2" and 3/4" ends but could not find them, but i did come find this Difficult Access Sockets 3/8 + 1/2" Drive 10mm - 19mm

I presume 1/2" will just be 13mm and 3/4" will be 19mm, BUT i think the nuts are bigger tbh....as how can a 22mm pipe (bath feed) have a 19mm size nut on the tap?

Pardon our interruption...

Can anyone advise please as to what size the nuts retaining both 13mm and 22mm taps are?

If not i think i have no choice than to order the full set.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Good luck as I’ve had to use an 18” stilson before to remove some can you try putting some heat on the nut ?

 

[Deleted member 120897]

Might be paint and puttied on, extremely difficult to remove

 

[bilabonic]

Yes, i can just about see the thread with a torch, thread covered in putty but if i could get a car ratchet socket spanner on it i should be able to remove it, i just don't need the full set with wrench/extension bars etc

cheers

 

[Basher]

Try "crows foot wrench" (or "crowfoot") if searching for just the ends. Still leaves you with the issue of what size across flats i'm afraid 🤔

 

[bilabonic]

Wow never seen them before, great idea (much like my palm wrench i use in vehicles).

Yes the question is what size are the actual retaining nuts, been googling and can't seem to find the size's.

But i think they are 27mm for 1/2" and 32mm for 3/4"?

So my original idea would not work. Crazy that nobody sells them to fit a ratchet bar.

Cheers

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Very deep socket depending on your collection

 

[Basher]

So my original idea would not work. Crazy that nobody sells them to fit a ratchet bar.

Cheers

you can get them, including flexible type, to fit a socket bar. I didn't mean a set, just individual ones for the job.
But on second thoughts they look just as expensive ☹️

 

[bilabonic]

@ShaunCorbs
I don't think there's a long socket that deep mate.

@Basher
Stupid prices, that's why i posted, rather cut tap from above with grinder/slicing disc tbh.

I can reach in then, cut pipe and fit a flexi and 3/4"/22mm pipe.

I though stuff it i'll take bath out after i removed the toilet to barely get my had to it....

It's must be 50 years old, the cast iron legs are massive, compared to the new plastic Rubbish it's unreal, i could not make it move 1mm...lol

 

[Basher]

must be 50 years old, the cast iron legs are massive, compared to the new plastic Rubbish it's unreal, i could not make it move 1mm...lol

Extracted one recently. Don't know how they ever got it into the room - it certainly wouldn't fit through the door. A bit of effort, ear defenders, a sledgehammer, and trip to the tip 🥵.
Lived up to my name for once 😂

 

[CHRISX]

Hi All

Looking to replace taps on a cast iron bath, accessing them is near impossible (i even had to remove toilet). The taps are old lifter type with brass 3/4" nuts that seem welded on! The basin is much the same tbh.

I have a tap remover set like this and after 10 mins of finally getting it on the nut it will not budge as i can not apply enough pressure (doing it 'blind' with my arm fully extended/no 'purchase') to release the nut and i presume it will be like this for the whole length of the tap thread.
View attachment 62947

I then came across this set that i thin would do it but i do not need the wrench/bars etc, just the ends as i have a few good quality socket sets.

Todays Tools Professional Tap Back Nut and 15mm - 22mm Spanner Set for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Todays Tools Professional Tap Back Nut and 15mm - 22mm Spanner Set at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!

www.ebay.co.uk

View attachment 62948

So i searched just for the 1/2" and 3/4" ends but could not find them, but i did come find this Difficult Access Sockets 3/8 + 1/2" Drive 10mm - 19mm

I presume 1/2" will just be 13mm and 3/4" will be 19mm, BUT i think the nuts are bigger tbh....as how can a 22mm pipe (bath feed) have a 19mm size nut on the tap?

Pardon our interruption...

Can anyone advise please as to what size the nuts retaining both 13mm and 22mm taps are?

If not i think i have no choice than to order the full set.

Thanks in advance.

Hello bilabonic,

I had exactly the same problem when I had a contract to re-plumb a block of 19 flats that were previously a 1950`s Police station accommodation block - there were cast iron baths in every flat - some of the taps had been fitted using Putty & Paint under the tap flanges and in the tap holes and some seemed to have been fitted using Putty and Plaster in the tap holes.

All of the 38 Bath taps had to be removed as I describe below.

The bathroom walls had obviously been plastered after the baths had been fitted so the tap ends had hardly any access to get any tool onto the back nuts and they were definitely all seized because both of those substances had obviously seeped into the tap threads and there was no way to turn the back nuts.

The Baths were being refurbished / resurfaced and could not be taken out of position as they had been plastered into the walls.

I had to cut the body of the taps off just above the flange using an angle grinder - then bang a trimmed down piece of wood into the hole in the slight upstand that remained on the flange which allowed me to centre / locate the drill bit of a Metal Hole Saw to then use good quality Hole Saws to drill through the tap flanges enabling me to remove the taps.

I made sure that I used the correct size hole cutters so that the flange piece came off as a ring allowing the tap stem / threaded piece to be knocked out.

What I describe above depends on the design of the Bath taps - the one`s that I cut off were the individual Standard Cross Head Bath Taps that had a small waist section between the Tap flange and the main Body of the taps - that was where I was able to cut off the body of the taps using an angle grinder to leave just the flange with a hole in the middle.


Those methods / using those substances when fitting Bath taps on cast iron baths [and Basin taps] was The correct / Plumbers recognised method in years gone by including when I started my apprenticeship in the mid 1960`s as the tap holes were square [side on] and quite a bit larger than the lugs under the tap flanges which were supposed to stop the taps turning - bedding the tap in plaster was done to stop the taps turning.

Plumbers that I knew who were not much older than me in the mid 1960`s continued using those substances for many years when fitting taps to cast iron baths - it was how they were taught.

I hope that my description may help You - perhaps as a last resort - unless you can easily remove the Bath ?

Chris

P.S: I have a Box spanner somewhere amongst my long forgotten tools which in the 1970`s and 80`s used to fit Bath Taps back nuts on one end and Sink and Basin [1/2"] Taps back nuts on the other end.

If you wanted to try a Box spanner - basically a very long socket with a hole for a lever bar - you would need to know what size to buy and even with a Box spanner up near the taps under a Bath you would probably not have enough space for a bar or other tool for enough leverage to turn it.

 

[Ric2013]

You can get stronger wrenches than the good old Monument tap wrench, but in this case, I suspect an angle grinder/Dremel to cut nuts in half is the best option if you don't want to destroy the taps themselves.

The 1/2" and 3/4" sizes will refer to the nominal bore of a steel pipe which has the same thread the tap connector uses, so the nuts will be somewhat larger.