Odd Bathroom Tap connection, help?

[DeadlyGoldfish]

Hi, I've been searching around replacing my mixer tap and all seems simple until I came to actually look at how the current mixer tap is secured to the basin. Does anyone have any idea how this thing is connected and how to disconnect it. I've tried Googling but no real idea what to search for to get the answer, nothing obvious came up. Picture attached of the fitting underneath, all help appreciated.

Sorry for the poor quality image but the file size allowed upload is quite small...

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[John Rumm]

That is a pretty standard monoblock tap fixing. There is a crescent shaped metal plate with a hole in it, and a similar shape rubber washer behind it. The post you can see on the right of your photo is what tightens the plate against the underside of the tap - sandwiching the basin between the tape base and the washer.

Yours looks like you might be able to undo it with a screwdriver. However the normal way is with a set of box spanners deigned for this purpose:

you find the end that fits on the tap in question. The other spanners that fit each other to extended the shaft so its long enough to work on it, and the tommy bar goes through the spanner to tighten or loosen.

The water connections pass through slim annealed copper tails with threaded ends sealed with an O ring. They just screw into the base with a bit of PTFE tape on them for good measure.

[DeadlyGoldfish]

Thanks for the advice, I shall give it a go and at least I know what I am looking for on the internet now should I get stuck. It does indeed have a screwdriver end on it, just need to find one that I can fit in there and see what happens.

Thanks, Alex

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[Roger Mills]

This might give you some ideas:

[John Rumm]

You may find that the screw slot is just for tightening the threaded stud into the tap, and then there is a hex bodied long nut that rides up the screw to do the actual tightening. (the photo is not really clear enough to tell)

[DeadlyGoldfish]

Thanks for all the advice chaps, I'll read the thing and give it a go, what a great forum community this is.

Thanks,

Alex

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[John Rumm]

If you scrape away the thin layer of advertising that portals like diybanter glue on the top, there is a whole world lurking blow the surface:

[DeadlyGoldfish]

All done! :-)

Thanks for the help, took a couple of hours due to fiddly bits and tight spaces. Also stuck in isolator valves. Couldn't find in the Wicks the flexi connectors with the right ends so used some more pipe out of the isolator valves and jobs a good'en!

Thanks all,

Alex

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