How to troubleshoot what would make a garbage disposal leak out the bottom?

[Danny D.]

Here is an arrow and a comment showing the snap ring:

The problem is that you (a) have to know it's there, and (b) you have to be able to see it, and (c) you need to find the ends, which is really impossible given the low-light conditions you have under the sink (even with a flashlight) especially on a snap ring that is 10 years old.

If it hadn't been for this snap ring, I would have had the garbage disposal repaired in 1/10th the time that it took.

In hindsight though, I should have left everything in place.

[Danny D.]

In hindsight, I never needed to touch the snap ring.

What I *should* have done was simply twist the old garbage disposal out (with the hex tool provided), and then twist the new disposal unit in (again, with the hex tool provided).

What I ended up doing was unscrewing the three set bolts, which loosened the mount, but, which doesn't allow the mount to come apart, simply because the snap ring holds the mount together.

The lesson learned is to leave the snap ring alone. Next time.

[Danny D.]

Yup.

My mistake was not realizing that.

So, once I unscrewed the three set bolts, and started trying to take the drain opening apart, the caulking got destroyed, and, then I was committed to replacing the whole thing.

Lesson learned.

[Nate Nagel]

Actually that probably isn't caulking, but plumber's putty, and a tub of that is cheap.

nate

[Danny D.]

Thanks for the clarification. I had erroneously equated the two terms.

I did buy a pound of the plumbers putty and only used an ounce. I'm not sure *what* to do with the remainder. Maybe let the grandkids play with it as "kid putty"?

[digitaldivasd]

Same problem, or so it first appeared. However, after having crawled under the sink and watching very closely as I ran the disposal, with red food col ored water...to see if I could determine exactly where the leak was...I hau led ass right on over to YOUTUBE! Oh yeah, they have a boatload of these re ally cool things called videos and by golly, you can learn how to do anythi ng on YouTube.

Sorry fellas, I couldn't resist. This was an extremely entertaining read. B eing a girl, and a blonde to boot, I was rather concerned with the whole be ing under the sink with a motor housed in a heavy metal jacket over my head ...hair and all. But I did actually learn a few very good things to know he re, and thanks for the differentiation between smooth wire and ridged wire. That was a gem!

I doubt any of you will even see my reply...but hey, I'm very glad I found the post. I learned some useful things, got many, many laughs and got to po ke fun at some boys, because after all, you really can learn how to do all of this stuff on YouTube if you just phrase your query correctly. And it ta kes a helluva lot less sweat, hemming and hawing. Doubt it would be as much fun for you though.

Thanks for the info, the entertainment and the reminder that we are still m ore practical than you men are...in other words, we take the easy way out! But bless your hearts, I'm so glad we're different. Life would be so much less fun if we thought alike.

(Love the old FAA "pre-flight check, walkaround"; my dad had this posted in side his huge chart books/flight plan notebooks in his plane. Fond memories )

Julie