The shower hardware in one of our bathrooms is 40+ years old and is
leaking like mad. I got all new replacement hardware but the old
piping is so coroded that I can't take it out. I've sprayed about 3
cans of Liquid Wrench on the connections to loosen them and no go. I
could cut them out, but since it is impossible to replace the lines
going up to the shower head and to the faucet, and I couldn't remove
the piping from those two connections... I'd be up a creek.

Any ideas? I'm tired of banging on the two pipes with a pipe wrench,
I just want to get it all replaced.

Brian Henderson wrote:

The shower hardware in one of our bathrooms is 40+ years old and is
leaking like mad. I got all new replacement hardware but the old
piping is so coroded that I can't take it out. I've sprayed about 3
cans of Liquid Wrench on the connections to loosen them and no go. I
could cut them out, but since it is impossible to replace the lines
going up to the shower head and to the faucet, and I couldn't remove
the piping from those two connections... I'd be up a creek.

Any ideas? I'm tired of banging on the two pipes with a pipe wrench,
I just want to get it all replaced.

Is this galvanized iron pipe?? Are there unions??
No idea what your arrangement looks like but one method is
to heat the fitting with a torch to expand it.
Or cut the galv and rethread it.
Or use a Dresser compression fitting.

Jim

On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 16:03:43 -0500, Speedy Jim wrote:

Is this galvanized iron pipe?? Are there unions??
No idea what your arrangement looks like but one method is
to heat the fitting with a torch to expand it.
Or cut the galv and rethread it.
Or use a Dresser compression fitting.

Yes, sorry. It's galvanized iron. The problem is removing the faucet
assembly itself. The two water supply lines come off just fine, it's
the iron connections to the shower head and the faucet itself that are
completely corroded. Unfortunately, this is an old house and the
previous owners cut a hole in the tile and the space I have to work
with is about 3'x18", just between the two studs where the hardware is
mounted. If I cut off the iron pipe, I still have to deal with the
unions running up to the shower head and down to the faucet, neither
of which can be replaced as they are just as corroded and I couldn't
remove them.

Brian Henderson wrote:

On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 16:03:43 -0500, Speedy Jim wrote:

Is this galvanized iron pipe?? Are there unions??
No idea what your arrangement looks like but one method is
to heat the fitting with a torch to expand it.
Or cut the galv and rethread it.
Or use a Dresser compression fitting.

Yes, sorry. It's galvanized iron. The problem is removing the faucet
assembly itself. The two water supply lines come off just fine, it's
the iron connections to the shower head and the faucet itself that are
completely corroded. Unfortunately, this is an old house and the
previous owners cut a hole in the tile and the space I have to work
with is about 3'x18", just between the two studs where the hardware is
mounted. If I cut off the iron pipe, I still have to deal with the
unions running up to the shower head and down to the faucet, neither
of which can be replaced as they are just as corroded and I couldn't
remove them.

If applying heat from a torch looks too dangerous in that space,
use a Sawzall to cut the pipes off to the shower head and the
"faucet" (spout?).
For the shower head, think about snaking a length of copper
up in the wall space. Work thru the hole in the tile to remove
the existing EL for the shower arm. Put a "drop-ear EL" on the
copper to attach to wall/stud.
Alternate is to use a Dresser compression fitting on the
existing galv riser. Ordinarily I wouldn't use one inside
a wall, but the shower riser is low pressure.

For the "faucet"/spout, saw the old piping out and replace
with copper or even CPVC.

Jim