On Oct 2, 5:25*pm, Paul Michaels wrote:
My home was built in 1984 so I wasn't surprised when water started
leaking from behind the toilet in one of the bathrooms.

Upon further examination, I figured out that the water was leaking
from the valve stem (knob you screw in/out to turn on/off the water)
that is attached to the toilet water supply valve assembly.

Not including the trip to Home Depot, it took about 30 minutes and $5
to replace the old part and stop the leak.

I took pictures of the procedure and wrote up a quick guide to assist
anyone else dealing with this common problem.

Here's the gallery -http://www.paulstravelpictures.com/Toilet-Water-Supply-Valve-Leak-Rep...

I hope someone finds it useful.

Cheers,
Paul Michaels
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

I commend you on offering this guide to those who need it. A couple
of comments:

1) Your pictures really show how much the quality of the standard shut
off valve stem has dropped in 25 years. The old one was mainly brass,
looking really good, and the new one was almost all plastic.
Hopefully you might get half the life out of the new valve that you
got from the last one. Was there a screw holding the washer on the
stem? If so, you could have spent 25 cents on a new washer instead of
$5 on a new valve.

2) If the old valve was leaking out the stem, you could probably have
tightened the nut down to stop the leak. It works 80% of the time for
me. I have houses with shut offs that are 50 years old that still
work well.

JK