Shower Drop Ear Elbow and Shower Pipe

[Rbaylor]

I notice the pipe through the wall from the ear elbow is at a slight downward angle. I had to replace the ear elbow, but checked both the old and new are not true 90° and cause a very slight downward slant to the shower pipe. Is this normal? It's kind of problematic because I'm replacing the old shower elbow pipe and head with one of those retrofit vertical shower bars with a raised rainfall head and hand sprayer and it seems to "want" a connecting pipe perpendicular to the wall.

My next fix is the dread Moen cartridge replacement which looks "interesting" from what I read on this forum. This for the same shower as described above.

73 year old rookie DIYer here getting into uncharted territory.

Thanks for any/all advice.

 

[Terry]

Which Moen do you have?
The Posi-Temp or the old push-pull 2600 series?
Sometimes the cartridge is easy and sometimes not.

How off vertical is it? Is it off some because it's PEX to the drop ear instead of copper, which tends to keep it straighter.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Rbaylor]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Moen is push-pull, then rotate toward either hot or cold. It is hard to get it to shut off completely (installed 1986 ish), always a little drip. I can pull it on and push it off, but it doesn't "glide" in and out. I'm hoping it may come out without much effort since it does move.

The shower pipe angle is slight, at least ever since son installed a longer elevated pipe for a 12" rain shower. I always worried about that. Went to replace and the drop elbow popped loose from the copper riser. Noticed very little sign of solder in socket, but a couple of good sized tear drops of solder and inch or so down the pipe. Obviously not done well when built. Because of a solder "ring" on the pipe, I had to cut pipe down lower for clean joint. At suggestion of plumber shopping at Home Depot same time, made the cut, then used a SharkBite connector to go from copper to 1/2" PEX,which then went to elbow. SharkBite drop ear elbow should be true because it has 3 screws, 2 to either side and 1 on top. Old sweat elbow just had one on each side. Maybe the board it attaches to isn't perfectly vertical, thus contributing to the slant. I can nervously force it vertical, and then I'll install the whole vertical bar assembly and leave the wall open a few days with a plastic flap over the opening so I can confirm no leaks before I replace the tile.

Wish me luck.

 

[Jeff H Young]

screw a long nipple in and adjust block it to where nipple is coming out level . put a cap on and open shower valve to check for leak of your shark bite .
some times the cartridge is easy to change sometimes not. but once you get it done it will be really easy and smooth and no drips. those work good