Our house was built 20 plus years ago. This weekend, I noticed one of our bathroom faucets were loose. I took off the handle and trim piece, and saw a pile of rust chunks and dust. The faucets are Price Pfister Widespread. It appears the plumber used pot metal (?) nuts on the faucets instead of brass.
Now, the problem is that for the most part, the nuts just crumble in your hand, but the rust is stuck to the threads, or, the nut is just frozen on the faucet body. No amount of WD40, tapping, trying to unscrew will get the rust off without messing up the threads. I also tried using a thin flat blade screw driver to clean the threads. I doubt that heating the thread will do much good either, although I have not tried that (I don't have a tourch at present). I also thought of a die, but since the rusted pot metal is harder than the brass body, I thought that this method would mess up the threads.
I hate the idea of buying new faucet bodies since they go for $40 a pop. I bought 4 to replace the ones in the master bathroom, but I still have 6 others with the same problem, and I havent even looked at the bath tubs or showers yet.
Going back to the plumber (I do know who the company is) after 20 years in not going to accomplish anything, I'm sure.
So, does anyone have any great ideas on how to get the rust out of the threads?
Thanks.
Dave