On May 3, 6:40*pm, Steve Kraus wrote:
We have a dripping bathtub faucet. *This is a conventional two valve faucet *
with stems sticking straight out of the wall, about 50 years old. *It's
probably just a simple matter of replacing the washers but I have to get
the handles off to do that. *They may not have been off in a half century
and naturally they don't want to budge. *Any ideas? *Bag them with a
solution of CLR?

I suppose if worse comes to worse I can cut them with Dremel cutting wheel
and replace them.

Handle puller & some sort of penetrating oil / solvent (like a Liquid
Wrench product).
Remove handle screws, squirt ends of valve stems, try to get some
spray behind the handles.

Tap gently with hammer and wiggle / manhandle the handles to get them
moving with respect to the valve stems.

I just removed a 30 year old set last week....but I had to fight with
them for about 10 minutes per handle just to get them to wiggle. Then
I used a handle puller to finish the job.

If they hadn't budged, cutting them off was my next option. I
replaced all the internal parts, including the valve seat. I figure
they'll be good for a long time.

cheers
Bob