ORLANDO, Fla. – Sandy told us her sink stopper wasn’t stopping any water from going down the drain and we discovered it was the ball rod — it was rusted!
Sandy was able to pull the stopper handle behind the faucet up and down but that didn’t close the stopper. So we bought an $8 stopper ball rod replacement kit and installed it in 5 minutes.
We purchased: Bathroom sink stopper ball rod replacement
We brought with us: nothing!
Step 1
Climb under your sink. The way a bathroom sink stopper typically works is the stopper handle behind the faucet attaches to a rod underneath your sink. The rod goes through your drain pipe and that rod, as you pull up and down on the stopper handle, lifts and lowers the stopper inside the sink. Slide under the sink and locate the bottom of the stopper handle which should be connected to your rod.
Step 2
Unscrew the old rod. The ball rod is held in place inside the drainpipe by a screw-in flange. Unscrew the flange and that should allow you to slide out the old ball rod. The reason it’s called a ball rod is because you’ll notice a small ball near the end of the rod. The point of the ball is allow the rod to swivel up and down (to lift and lower the stopper) and to prevent leaks once the flange is screwed down tight. Turns out Sandy’s ball rod was rusted and so the end of the rod was broken off and not making contact with the stopper.
Step 3
Slide in new ball rod and tighten the flange. The new rod should slide all the way into the drain pipe until the ball stops. Then finger-tighten the flange.
Step 4
Reconnect the new ball rod to the old stopper handle. The new ball rod should have a clip — a folded piece of metal included. Slide the clip on the rod, push the rod through one of the holes in the handle, and then slide the other side of the clip onto the rod effectively pinning the handle in place. You may have to adjust where the handle attaches to the rod — you may have to choose a different hole on the handle end either higher or lower depending on how high or low the handle sits behind the sink.
Step 5
Drop in the stopper. Put the stopper back into the drain and now the handle should lift and lower the stopper. You’ll notice the bottom of your stopper has a hole in it — this is because some people choose to put the ball rod through the bottom of the stopper hole to keep the stopper in place in the drain — that’s up to you. If you want to lock in the stopper, climb back under the sink, unscrew the flange, pull out the ball rod, the stopper should drop lower into the drain hole, and then replace the ball rod and screw it back into place. The rod should now have slid through the hole in the bottom of the stopper, holding it in place.
You just got results at home!
If you have a project you’d like Erik to tackle, send us an email at GettingResultsAtHome@wkmg.com and next week Erik might just show up at your door!