Tony wrote:
I've got a 30-35 year old American Standard toilet that needs to have
the actuator assembly replaced. Symptom is that when I flush, the
actuator tips back beyond the point where the actuator can fall back and
enable the toilet to refill. As such, I have to jiggle the handle a
little to get that to happen. I've looked at the plumbing supply
websites and I'm "assuming" that the part I need is the "Actuator for
Old American Standard Toilets". I looked at the #4 and #5 AS actuators
and I'm guessing they are for more modern AS toilets than mine. So I'm
basing it on the age of the toilet. So before I do this, I have a couple
questions that hopefully someone could answer as this will be the first
time I've replaced an actuator:

1) How do these actuators fail...in other words, what on the actuator
causes the assembly to tip back beyond the point of resealing the toilet?

2) How easy (or hard) is it to replace the assembly? I've been on a
couple other sites and some posters reference leaking problems at the
base after replacing one of these.

3)Does the whole assembly have to be replaced or can the base of the
actuator be left on and the rest of the new actuator be fitted onto the
base of the old actuator?


You're right to be cautious.

The actuator or "rocking boat" can get unbalanced due to wear.
A quick fix if you want to try it, is to wrap a couple turns
of solder wire around the neck of the thing to add some weight.
That will put it back in balance and it won;t get stuck.

Some of the flush valves have plastic hinge points the actuator
snaps into. Use great care taking the actuator out.

One solution for actuator problems is the Fluidmaster 555C
"FlusherFixer". The whole assembly "glues" to the existing
flush valve base after the hinge pivot arms are removed.

Jim