Kung Fu Maintenance demonstrates how to replace the tank to bowl toilet bolts and gaskets when you are getting a leak in between the toilet bowl and tank.
I’ve got a leaking tank-to-bowl gasket. I’m going to show you how to change these out. What you need is a large screwdriver, and if you have a pair of vice grips, that’ll help quite a bit. You want to turn off your water angle stop. Then if you have a wet/dry vacuum, that’ll make it a lot easier to vacuum out your water from your tank. We’ve got to disconnect the supply line; there might be a little bit of water in here. Then if you have vice grips, what you can do is just clip them onto your nut; this will make it a little bit easier, actually, quite a bit easier. Now we can remove the nut. Sometimes you can turn it at the top, sometimes not. I’m going to go ahead and try. Not the easiest place to get into. If you can’t, what you have to do is hold it with your screwdriver up top and do it down here. These can be pretty stubborn, so I’m getting away pretty easy on this one. I’ve had some where the threads are so stripped and rusted out that I had to take a hacksaw; take the blade off of the hacksaw and stick it in between the tank and bolt, and cut it by hand; takes a little while. Not the funnest job in the world.
Poke your screwing back up through here and remove it. It is a good idea to wear gloves. I forgot gloves; I wish I had brought them, so I’m going to have to spend more time cleaning up. Still, just get it done. Next one is the same thing. This time, I should do it from up here; maybe, maybe not. Hold this down. Got so much calcium deposits built up; just got to keep it from turning. I need a bigger screwdriver. I’ve got a little bit bigger one on Leatherman. Hopefully [inaudible: 04:45]. I’m going to have to do the hacksaw method this time, but [inaudible: 04:55]. Looks like that’s what it’s going to be, though. Oh, my gosh. I can get the nut to turn but it looks like the hacksaw method. If you need to do this method, it’s better to use a hacksaw and take off the blade and do it in between. I’m going to be using a Saws-All today.
What we want to do is protect the tank as much as we can, because there’s a good chance that this will break it if not. This is really not the recommended way. You can try to cushion your tank and bowl as much as possible. In order to get in there, we’re going to have to get in between the tank and bowl right to the bolt. It’s going to be a tough one. Get ready for some noise. We can get rid of our bolts, and again, I should have brought perhaps some gloves. Get rid of my old bolts, the old parts. Lucked out, didn’t crack the tank or anything. We can flip this upside-down. [inaudible: 07:24] pop up the big gasket with a screwdriver. We’ll leave our spacers, just re-position them. I’ve got the new gasket, which [inaudible: 07:48]. I like to seat it all the way up over the nut if possible. There we go. Flip back over, insert it into its hold, and here’s our new set of tank bowl gaskets.
What we’ve got to do is put a washer on, and then a gasket on. Then on the bottom, it’s going to go gasket, then the washer, and then the . . . I prefer to use these nuts because the nuts for this brand of toilet tend to hang up. We’re going to pass down into our hole. [inaudible: 09:08] on the bottom. Again, gasket, washer, and then nut. Then it’s going to be the same for the other side; again, washer, then the gasket. Pass it down through the hole. Then on the other side, gasket, washer, and then nut.
I made a pretty good little mess, but my wet/dry vac can take care of that. We can go ahead and put our supply line back on if we wanted to. I’m going to go ahead and wait until I get this tightened up. With old gaskets, you don’t want to turn it from the top, but if you’re replacing the bolts and the gaskets, it’s okay to turn the screw from the top. You can do it either way. We can use our vice grips and lock onto the nut. Here we go. Now I can just do my screw on up. See if I can get you some more light. We’re going to alternate between the right and the left side; hold it with our hand on the other side. We have a second pair of vice grips which are a little smaller, should be perfect for this.
I got vice grips on both sides, so I can speed this up a bit. Pair of vice grips here, vice grips there. I’m going to try to make the tank nice and level, sit nice and low. Tighten this down. This one’s a little tricky to get at. I may need to tighten it with the vice grips down below, instead. Let’s get it nice, tight, and even.
Now we’re going to put our supply line back on. We can turn on our water and test it out. These are the nice 1/4 -turn angle stops I’ve been telling you about in my other videos. Watch the video on angle stops if you want to learn about that. Pretty nice, good way to go for angle stops. You’re going to flush, make sure we don’t have any leaks. We’ll field test for leaks. Feels good, no leaks. Make sure our water shuts off before the top of the fill table, before handle. Flush; male sure you have no leaks. Forgetting my channel locks back over here. We’re all set. I’ll just clean up a little bit, vacuum up, put my lid back on. We’re good to go.