The good folks of alt.home.repair have been seeing me through my toilet crisis for a few days now, and I'm pleased to report that it's fixed! To make a long story short, the most heavily used toilet in our house started flushing slowly and backing up a few days ago. I plunged and plunged to no avail. It was recommended that I try a closet auger which I did and still, the problem remained. Several people told me to pull the toilet and I admit, I was reluctant about doing that as I've never done it before. Well, today I did it. I pulled the SOB. I got all the water out, disco-d the water line and then reached as far as I could into the toilet to see if I could feel anything (and maybe save some trouble). Alas, I couldn't feel anything in there. So I unscrewed the bolts from the floor and tilted it up while looking down at the base. I saw something hanging out. I couldn't tell what it was at first. I wiggled around and got to the point where I could lean the entire toilet gently against the while while I examined the bottom. As it turns out, it was a half-eaten banana and it's peel. I think the banana would have gone down w/o the peel, but the peel evidently got somehow tangled up and it wasn't going anywhere without being pulled. I was relieved that the problem was so easily solved. I then dragged the toilet out to the front yard and went back in. I talked the wife into touching up the paint behind the toilet (thanks to someone here for suggesting that) while I took a hanger and worked over the holes around the inside of the rim (someone else suggested that), Then I got all the old wax off the flange. I went back outside and was hosing off the entire toilet when I decided I wanted to put a new seat on it. (It's a hassle to install a seat on this toilet while it's in place as it's close to a wall on one side). So I popped up to Home D. and got a new seat (two actually, one for the guest bathroom upstairs), got home, and put it on. At this point my father-in-law helped me put the new wax seal on the bottom of the toilet. He smashed it onto the toilet around the edges of the seal using his thumbs and got a good seal on it. We carried it inside together and seated it on the flange and gently rocked it back and forth, then front to back. Then I put the bolts and tightened 'em up a bit. The bolts (new ones that come w/ the wax seal) had a snap-off piece as they were long, so I snapped off the top and, sadly, the bolts are still too tall to snap the little bolt covers on. That's the only hitch I ran into. I'll hacksaw more off those bolts at some point in time. Anyway, I re-connected the water and invited the wife to take it for a test drive (I requested #1 only, hehe). I said, call me in so I can watch it flush. It flushed like a new toilet. I was thrilled!
In closing, I'd like to thank all the folks here who gave me info, advice, and in the case of Salty, a kick in the butt!
Mike