removing headgear from taps All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[simpleton]

Hi, the hot tap in our bathroom has started to drip persistantly. I decided to take the tap apart myself and possibly fit a new washer. Its a pillar tap, and once I got the shroud off I found I couldnt undue the nut that holds the headgear to the body of the tap (hope this is making sense) When I try to turn it the tap starts to turn. It seems to be seized up. Somebody at work told me to apply heat to it but im unsure of what he meant. Does anybody have any tips for removing stubborn headgear?? I dont really want to shell out for a new set of taps so any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Chris

[marrtin]

It's not uncommon to get the whole tap turning when trying to gain access to the washers. Get someone to stop the tap from turning while you apply force to the nut. Don't go anywhere near it with heat unless you want to destroy the tap.

[Gus]

You need to protect the tap spout with a cloth and then put a wrench on it so the wrench is perpendicular to the tap and then use a big adjustable spanner on the nut. a bit of WD40 will help things along. I wouldn't use heat unless you really have to.

[simpleton]

Thanks fro the advice, I managed to dismatle the tap using the biggest wrench I could find and some stillsons wedged on the spout to stop it moving.
Apparantly another good thing to do is to drill two holes in a board of wood roughly where the tap spouts are and put this over them both this stops the taps moving.

[thedoctor]

See the projects section with everything fromrepairing a dripping tap to repairing a supatap. All instructions + images are there