Any help would be much appreciated with the following:
I have a close coupled toilet cistern and need to replace the syphon.
Is the syphon the same as the standard siphons available from b&q, wickes
etc or is there a special version for close coupled units?
Also the cistern is fastened to the bowl with two 6mm bolts with wingnuts
which are very tight.
I've tried wd40 but still cannot loosen them by hand or with pliers. Is
there a tool available to loosen tight wingnuts?
tia

"Biggles" wrote in message
...
Any help would be much appreciated with the following:
I have a close coupled toilet cistern and need to replace the syphon.
Is the syphon the same as the standard siphons available from b&q, wickes
etc or is there a special version for close coupled units?
Also the cistern is fastened to the bowl with two 6mm bolts with wingnuts
which are very tight.
I've tried wd40 but still cannot loosen them by hand or with pliers. Is
there a tool available to loosen tight wingnuts?
tia

The syphons in B&Q are most likely ok.
Many can be uncoupled without removing the cistern from the pan, on this
type there is a knurled plastic compression bit where you can split the
syphon into 2. If not fit one next time :-)
Often mild steel bolts are used to hold the cistern to the pan and these
obviously rust up in no time and should be stainless steel, brass or
plastic.
There is a tool but you'll probably have to split the wingnuts off somehow
or hacksaw the bolts, not an easy job...
I was glad that the 3 new toilets I've fitted recently don't have this type
of syphon any more but use valves to flush.

"Biggles" wrote in news:411395ea$0$41791$65c69314
@mercury.nildram.net:

I've tried wd40 but still cannot loosen them by hand or with pliers. Is
there a tool available to loosen tight wingnuts?
tia

I often use a shifting spanner wound in tight enough to span and grip the
wings.

Be aware that when you resort to this the fixings may require replacing

mike

"Biggles" wrote in message
...
Any help would be much appreciated with the following:
I have a close coupled toilet cistern and need to replace the syphon.
Is the syphon the same as the standard siphons available from b&q, wickes
etc or is there a special version for close coupled units?
Also the cistern is fastened to the bowl with two 6mm bolts with wingnuts
which are very tight.
I've tried wd40 but still cannot loosen them by hand or with pliers. Is
there a tool available to loosen tight wingnuts?
tia


Been there, done it, a couple of weeks ago.

Look carefully at the union between the cistern and the bowl, if its like
mine you'll find a steel cradle that stands about 5mm between the cistern
(fastened via a central 55mm AF plastic nut around the outflow) which
provides the two lugs that the bolts/wingnuts fit to fix to the bowl.

Mine developed a leak, which over time seemed to have corroded parts of the
cradle. A local plumbers supply provided a replacement for £5. At the same
time I went to B&Q (around the corner - only excuse) to find a wrench that
would fit the 55mm plastic nut - only to walk out instead with one of their
quiet-flush push-button valve systems to replace the entire existing syphon
system.

The whole lot took around an hour (I like to check things that splash about
with water carefully, and this was my first adventure with a toilet), and
was a doddle to complete.

Regarding the bolts - try soaking with WD40 overnight, failing that, if
you're happy that they're external bolts (as described above, fitted to an
external steel cradle - and not through-cistern bolts) then there's nothing
stopping you cutting the blighters off and replacing with new. On that
subject, once gave a mate a hand removing some though-cistern bolts which
had siezed and rusted and just span when the wingnut was rotated, in the end
the only way we found to do this was to file two flats on the end of the
thread, clamp across the flats, then attack the wingnuts with the longest
pair of pliers we could find. Maybe a useful tit-bit.

Regards

Many thanks to you all for your help and advice.
Mine looks like the steel cradle system, so I'll try a long jaw wrench on
the wing nuts after leaving wd40 overnight.
The push button valve system sounds good so I'll look into that first.
Once again many thanks for your help


wrote in message
...

"Biggles" wrote in message
...
Any help would be much appreciated with the following:
I have a close coupled toilet cistern and need to replace the syphon.
Is the syphon the same as the standard siphons available from b&q,
wickes
etc or is there a special version for close coupled units?
Also the cistern is fastened to the bowl with two 6mm bolts with
wingnuts
which are very tight.
I've tried wd40 but still cannot loosen them by hand or with pliers. Is
there a tool available to loosen tight wingnuts?
tia


Been there, done it, a couple of weeks ago.

Look carefully at the union between the cistern and the bowl, if its like
mine you'll find a steel cradle that stands about 5mm between the cistern
(fastened via a central 55mm AF plastic nut around the outflow) which
provides the two lugs that the bolts/wingnuts fit to fix to the bowl.

Mine developed a leak, which over time seemed to have corroded parts of
the
cradle. A local plumbers supply provided a replacement for £5. At the same
time I went to B&Q (around the corner - only excuse) to find a wrench that
would fit the 55mm plastic nut - only to walk out instead with one of
their
quiet-flush push-button valve systems to replace the entire existing
syphon
system.

The whole lot took around an hour (I like to check things that splash
about
with water carefully, and this was my first adventure with a toilet), and
was a doddle to complete.

Regarding the bolts - try soaking with WD40 overnight, failing that, if
you're happy that they're external bolts (as described above, fitted to an
external steel cradle - and not through-cistern bolts) then there's
nothing
stopping you cutting the blighters off and replacing with new. On that
subject, once gave a mate a hand removing some though-cistern bolts which
had siezed and rusted and just span when the wingnut was rotated, in the
end
the only way we found to do this was to file two flats on the end of the
thread, clamp across the flats, then attack the wingnuts with the longest
pair of pliers we could find. Maybe a useful tit-bit.

Regards