Bath Taps wont fit?

[a]

we bought some new taps for the bathroom and the sink ones went in fine (apart from struggling to get some ptfe tape on the joints up underneath the sink!). However when I came to put the bath taps in the nut on the water pipes only goes a couple of turns up the taps thread before stopping (so the pipe is loose). I dont want to force it and damage the threads, but what is wrong here? The old taps are 8 years old, and look like the same 3/4" thread when held next to the new one (pitch looks the same and thread profile appears the same), but on both hot and cold the nut only goes up a couple of turns. Any ideas before I trot off to the store tomorrow with tap in hand to find something that will fit?

cheers

Dave.

[Tony Williams]

When the nut apparently bottoms does it feel as if is stops hard (as if against a stop) or does it feel as if the nut slowly grinds to a stop.

The hard stop, but still loose, could be that you do not have the (fibre?) sealing washer in there.

The soft stop could suggest a crossed thread, or a different thread on the tap.

[a]

Does actually feel like a crossed thread, but I cant see it being as it goes on dead straight. I went into B&Q with the tap today and found one flexible tap connector which screwed on perfectly, but all the others (which appeared identical) stopped after about a turn just like the nuts on the bath pipes. I asked the assistant in there hoping he might help but he just reckoned I shouldn't worry about the resistance and tighten it up - I havent tried this yet.

[John]

I personnally would go with this suggestion, if the taps are UK manufacture, supply etc. then they 'SHOULD' be standard 3/4" thread. You can do a couple of things first though. Try tigtening some connector to the taps whilst they are not connected to the bath, this way it will be easier to see what your doing and also to undo them later, have you tried lubricating the threads with something like Vasalene (sp?) first to help the threads tighten up.

HTH

John

[a]

manufacture,

I was being too cautious - I just expected to parallel threads to go up and down easily (by hand). Doing it up with a spanner has worked and doesnt seem to have destroyed the threads in the process :o)