The most common serious problem with a tap is wearing out of the threads of the gland nut shown below. As a result, the gland does not push down the jumper and the washer over the distal part of the jumper firmly, but keeps rotating through 360 degrees. The washer does not make firm contact with its bed and shut off flow of water. Then water keeps leaking even when the tap is closed. The only solution plumbers offer to this problem is to replace the tap with a new one. That is what we always did all my parents' life and all my life too, until I decided to experiment with it.
The following 3D image of an old-fashioned, conventional tap shows the tap in a dismantled state, with the shield removed. I opened the irreparable (as diagnosed by the plumber) tap in our house, and removed the jumper with the washer mounted on it. Then I put another washer over the tip of the jumper, so that there were two washers, one below the other. That is shown in the second illustration.
Then I put the jumper-washers assembly back and reassembled the tap. Voila! The tap was fully functional. It has been quite a few days, and the tap is still working fine.
I have another solution to this problem too. It is to increase the height of the jumper. I could do it by fixing a rigid plastic tube of proper size (to be decided by experimenting, or by trial and error) over its upper end. Then the lower end of the jumper-washer assembly will be lower than usual, and the washer would shut off the flow of water before the turns of the gland nut reach the worn out part.
I wish I had thought of all this years ago. Then we would not have had to throw away perfectly reparable taps and buy new ones which had no guarantee of lasting long.
The following 3D image of an old-fashioned, conventional tap shows the tap in a dismantled state, with the shield removed. I opened the irreparable (as diagnosed by the plumber) tap in our house, and removed the jumper with the washer mounted on it. Then I put another washer over the tip of the jumper, so that there were two washers, one below the other. That is shown in the second illustration.
Then I put the jumper-washers assembly back and reassembled the tap. Voila! The tap was fully functional. It has been quite a few days, and the tap is still working fine.
I have another solution to this problem too. It is to increase the height of the jumper. I could do it by fixing a rigid plastic tube of proper size (to be decided by experimenting, or by trial and error) over its upper end. Then the lower end of the jumper-washer assembly will be lower than usual, and the washer would shut off the flow of water before the turns of the gland nut reach the worn out part.
I wish I had thought of all this years ago. Then we would not have had to throw away perfectly reparable taps and buy new ones which had no guarantee of lasting long.
