Anyone with a plumbing background - Help please?

Chip Charnley

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136
I have two of those exterior faucets with long shanks back into the house to prevent winter freeze. When I crank them wide open, they start leaking through the shank opening. Is there any way to fix this leak short of removing the faucet and replacing it? :eek::dunno:
 
When you say "shank", do you mean the shaft that the handle attaches to? If so, there should be a nut at the bottom of the shaft with the shaft going through the nut. Carefully tightening this nut should help with your problem. The nut can sometimes crack however, necessitating a replacement, so don't just crank down on it with reckless abandon.:D You can get it tight but just be careful while tightening.


hth
 
If you have copper pipe don't just crank down on it you may twist the pipe in the wall. If you have to remove the valve you may need to open the wall back beyond the valve so someone can get a wrench on the pipe so the valve can be
loosened. I hope if this is the case that at least one side of the interior wall is where you can get to it. Been there done that.
 
You might just need to repack the stem. Remove the nut that holds the stem in, and pull it back to the handle - or even remove the handle and pull the nut completely off the stem. Get some stem packing - it looks like graphite or teflon impregnated string - and make (just) a couple wraps of it around the stem, then reinstall the nut snugly, but not too tight, and you're done.

If you keep the faucet closed during the whole operation, you won't even have to shut the water off to make the repair.
 
Thanks guys. I'll be taking a closer look at things tonight.

But not to worry Bart. Both faucets go through the wall and into space between joists accessable from the basement. :thumb:
 
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