Price Pfister diverter valve help

[bobzwilling]

I am rebuilding a Crown Imperial (or is it Crown Jewel?) 3-handle tub faucet in a 1960's home. I replaced the hot and cold stems with 910-013 and they matched the originals. I replaced the diverter with 910-022 and water goes to both the shower and tub when the valve is set to shower.

When comparing the 910-022 with the original, the original is slightly longer. The difference in length is in the area marked in the pic.

I've seen post about using two sealing washers. I have not tried it with the 910-022 but the difference in length is about the thickness of a washer.

Can anyone identify the old diverter valve and hopefully provide a part number?

Also, what would it take to convert this to ceramic cartridges? Could I buy a 00131XA rough-in valve and swap over the stems, then buy a new trim kit? The valve body is behind a tile wall so I don't want to change the whole thing.

 

[Marlinman]

Your diverter stem is longer than normal. I checked old, new, and aftermarket 910-022 diverters and they are all like you're new one. Stacking
950-040 diverter washers will be your best option. I would use an adhesive to make these into a single part. If not you may have problems removing the diverter at a later time.
As for a ceramic disc cartridge the H/C are # 910-030. No ceramic diverters are available.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[bobzwilling]

Thanks Marlinman! I ended up replacing the washer on the original diverter and re-installing. And thank you for confirming I have an oddball diverter. I spent hours on the internet trying to find a match with no success.

The weird thing is that I'm sure it's a Crown Imperial and the valve body must also be non-standard to accept the longer diverter. I can't believe Price Pfister made two versions of a valve body for the same model!

 

[hj]

The distance from black washer to the end of the white one MUST be equal since they both have to be tight to stop the crossflow. The ceramic stems do NOT always work in the Crown Imperial bodies. Sometimes you have to leave the seats in, and even then it may not work

 

[bobzwilling]

HJ, thanks for your insight! I may have the non-convertible Crown Imperial since it has the odd longer diverter stem. I'm sticking with compression stems for now and using the original diverter but I would like to switch to ceramic in the future if possible.

As an experiment, I gently closed the hot stem and removed it from the valve body. The distance from the mounting flange (not gasket) to the end of the compression washer is 1 1/16 inch (see pic). That should also be the distance from the flange to the face of the seat. I'm going to get a 910-030 and measure the equivalent distance.

I found a reference on the web to a special seat with a flat face used for conversions. It appears to be aftermarket and is advertised as "Pfister - Seat to convert to ceramic stems." Has anyone heard of these?