On Fri, 04 Dec 2020 16:42:10 +0000, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I've fitted one of those brass thread filling valves to my cistern.
Don't get on with plastic when the pipes are copper.

Tightening up the tap fitting is presenting a problem. There is very
little brass thread projecting from the cistern - although it does have
flats on it. Which measure at 18mm. So needs a very slim spanner to go
between the tap fitting nut and the one holding the valve into the
cistern. Needs to be less than 4mm thick.

You can buy slim spanners at a price. But this doesn't need to be as
strong as you'd need for a nut that size on a car, etc. One of the old
pressed steel bike types would probably be strong enough.

The new cistern is a very expensive Ideal Standard one. It's a high
level type with a chain for the flush. The lever simply didn't have
enough range to operate the syphon. Pull the wire link on the syphon by
hand and it worked just fine. Went as far as phoning their help line.
No help there -
other than take pics and send to them.

After a deal of head scratching - the lever looked very well made and
polished chrome - it turned out it had been fitted to the bracket the
wrong way round. Pressed out the roll pin pivot and re-assembled and it
now works.

Some bicycle spanners are very thin and are usually stamped out, so quite
cheap.