Franke taps - cartridge replacement?

[John Hearns]

I have a Franke Davos tap i nthe kitchen which has developed a drip.

Following previous postings on thsi list, I've taken one of the ceramic disk cartridges off and tried to descale it. I've found the South Services webpage with spares, and two replacement cartridges aren't that expensive.

But for the life of me I can't get the right hand cartridge to come off. The left hand one unscrews anti-clockwise. Anyone know if the right hand one unscrews clockwise or anti-clockwise? Any tips for freeing threads on things like this? I can't apply much more force or the tap will be wrenched out.

[pjlusenet]

I have a different Franke tap and I think the right hand side unscrewed anti-clockwise. I remember that getting the cartridge off the tap wasn't too difficult. However, when I compared it with the replacement part I realised that I'd actually taken the cartridge AND a brass 'ring' thing the cartridge fitted inside. Getting these two apart was nightmare. I tried WD40, a vice, a gas hob etc.. and only just managed to get them apart without breaking the 'ring' (although it was covered in scratches!) On examination it looked like the two parts had 'bonded' somehow - there was green staining on some of the thread.

If I'd realised how difficult this would be I would have ordered this part as well. (but I managed to reuse the old one)

Just to round off a bad job, the part on the replacement cartridge that the lever fitted onto was slightly smaller than the original. I ended up stuffing some staples into the gap to try and get the 2 parts to lock together.