Overhauled Delta 600 Shower Valve and Still Leaks

[Tenderpaw]

I have a shower with a Delta 600 series valve that was installed when the house was built in 1999. This is the one that has a big chrome nut that screws on and hold the ball and seals in. It has been leaking at the valve stem for a while so after reading some threads here and having a plumber charge me $725 labor to replace the entire valve in my other shower, I decided to try to overhaul this one myself to see if i could avoid having the entire valve replaced and the large bill. I bought the Delta 600 conversion kit that has all new trim pieces on Ebay and started the project.

I had hell getting it apart as the set screw was frozen. After drilling out the set screw and sawing the old nut so i could loosen without damaging the plumbing, i got it apart. I started installing the new ball and seals from the Ebay kit only to find the old ball valve on mine had a slot in it that fits over a pin in the valve body and the ball valve supplied in the kit did not. I went and bought a ball and seal kit that had the slot, put it all together, and it still leaks. Water drips from where the chrome nut screws on to the valve body when the valve is "on". Does not drip when off. It does not drip from where the stem of the ball sticks through the middle of the seal, just at the edge past the threads. I've tightened the big nut pretty tight and it has slowed the leak, but it still drips and I don't want to overtighten and damage something. BTW, i used silcone grease on the ball, seals, and threads. What could i have missed or done wrong? What should i check?

Thanks for your help and advice.

Dave

 

[hj]

You may have "loosened" the pin. Occassionally they become loose and since they are a "press fit" there is no way to secure them to stop the leak.

 

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[Jadnashua]

FWIW, Delta often warrantees their stuff for life...IOW, they may have just sent you the required bits to fix what you had. One thing that can give you grief is to omit the step to flush the line out prior to installation of the new parts. If there's any grit in there, it can score bits, and the seals won't work.

 

[Tenderpaw]

FWIW, Delta often warrantees their stuff for life...IOW, they may have just sent you the required bits to fix what you had. One thing that can give you grief is to omit the step to flush the line out prior to installation of the new parts. If there's any grit in there, it can score bits, and the seals won't work.

This post inspired me to check for trash. So i took it apart, cleaned everything, regreased, and put it back together and it seems to be fixed. I didn't find any trash, but maybe it was small or maybe everything seated better the second time around. Anyway, thanks for the help.

Dave

 

[Jadnashua]

My (limited) experience with doing this is that, sometimes, it's really hard to get things back together unless you liberally use some silicon grease. The seals are pretty resilient when new, and haven't been smashed and squashed in position for ages, so it's a tight fit...and, if they don't slide when installing them, you can 'curl' an edge, which will make it leak.