If something goes wrong with electrical, the breaker snaps off and I find the problem and fix it. If something goes wrong with plumbing there is liquid everywhere, causing more problems before you can fix the original one.
This one isn't that bad, though.
I took the eschuechon plate off of a single handle Moen shower control so I could caulk behind it, ditto the tub spout. I caulked, then went to put the esch plate back on, but the screws are too short. They don't reach the holes in the valve body. Longer ones don't work because the threads are nothing like what I have in the truck, they aren't 6/32 or /32, one's too small and the other too large.
So what I did was keep the esch plate in place and line the holes up with the screw holes using long 6/32 screws, figuring that I'd come back tomorrow and thread longer screws in. But, now the control handle won't go on, its screw is too short.
This is what I think happened: the valve is set too far back from the tile surface so the screws don't reach. When it was installed, they pulled the body closer (maybe using the tub spout), just to get a screw in. In fact when I took the plate off, one screw was in, and the other was loose, not threaded.
I tried to do this but was worried about stressing the copper lines to and from the valve body. So, the problem is left until tomorrow. I'm going to try to find longer screws, wish me luck. I'm tired and discouraged now, but tomorrow is another day.
Any other suggestions? Moen, single handle controller, probably >10 years old, it has the red/blue stripe on it for hot cold.