[SOLVED] Are threads on brass bolts the same as on steel?

[micky]

Are threads on brass bolts the same as on steel?

And can I use steel wingnuts on brass bolts or will that cause a thermonuclear pile or something as bad? Some kits come not with hexnuts but with wingnuts and that seems good to me. But my kit comes with hex nuts.

And am I going to have a hard time removing and replacing toilet tank screws alone? That is, will my arms be long enough if I have to hold the screw in place with one arm and loosen the nut with the other? I would have thought I could that with no trouble, but some Amazon reviewer made me doubt it.

And fourth, did you know that Eljer and probably one other brand I forget don't really work with Universal tank gaskets or kits. Kissler and Danco both make one especially for Eljer, which have longer bolts and two sets of washers and nuts each. As I understood it when I moved in, Eljer was an established famous brand**, but I began to think it was a cheaper brand that wouldn't have enough nerve to use a different design from others. **I haven't noticed the word Eljer on any of the plumbing except the paper/foil label that was stuck to the tank was still there. The first owner of this house didn't remove it.

For some reason I forget, I'd disconnected one toilet and needed to bend a new supply pipe for it. Though I'd done this for other toilets, I coudln't get this one. Usually when I try something 3 times, I get discouraged and quit, at least for a while, but this time I tried 4 or more. I didn't want to use flexible, but yesterday I relented.

Everything went well except when I flushed it and it refilled, water poured out the base of the tank. Almost all of it came forward and landed in the bowl anywy. But I don't think I can rely on that. Did the gasket fail because I hadn't used the toilet for a couple years? Because I don't know why it failed. I didn't push the tank around, yet not using it doesn't seem enough of a reason, even if it had been 20 years. If you're going to tell me it's just age, doesn't that mean I can expect the other two toilets to fail soon?

I'm pleased to say tha that push-on quarter-turn valve some of you were pushing (Stingray, Back-stabber or something... Sharkbite?) didn't leak the whole time I wasn't using the toilet and didn't leak yesterday, even though it got rotated back and forth a little bit on the supply pipe.

[Clare Snyder]

The threads are the same and in applications where a lot of torque is not required a brass nutmakes it easier to remove them down the road

[rbowman]

Brass nuts on steel bolts/studs or vice-versa are often used to prevent steel on steel corrosion rusting the parts together.

[trader_4]

The big variable there is whether the old ones are rusted on. Spray them with some PB Blaster a day before.

[micky]

Okay, will do that, but not till the parts come. (well maybe I'll do it then and now.) It turns out that no one in Baltimore had Eljer-specific gaskets in stock, not even at a store farther away (which their webpages are usually good at finding), not Lowes, Home Depot, Ace, or Walmart (all of which google found), with long screws and two sets of nuts and washers. Amazon had Kissler and Danco, and Walmart had Danco but the shipping cost almost doubled the charge. HomeDepot had Danco but not at a store. For free they will ship them to me or to a local store, so they are half the price of Walmart. Strangely, it is expected to come Thursday a day earlier if I ship straight to myself than to the store.