Why doesn't water come out of the shower head when the deverter is turned to the shower position? This is a three handle system and wuite old. Probably price-phister.

Does the water stop coming out of the spout when the diverter is turned to the shower?
If it doesn't, is the diverter a knob, can you verify the knob actually turns the stem?
If it does, can you hear water still flowing to somewhere? Or does it sound like shut off?

You can probably see where I'm going with this.

Why doesn't water come out of the shower head when the deverter is turned to the shower position? This is a three handle system and wuite old. probably price-phister.

You may have a washer that's broken in the diverter stem. Shut vthe water off to the valve,(see image)and remove the handle and face plate. You will see a large nut on the stem. This is the bonnet packing nut. Unscrew it and back the stem and washer assembly out counterclockwise. Check for a broken washer and any trash that may be left. Turn the water back on for a few seconds to flush out the opening. Also check the seat for nicks or rough spots. If you find any replace the seat bas well. Replace any worn or broken washers and reassemble. Working better now? Good luck, Tom

Speedball1 You were right on with your answer. Howerer I fixed it yesterday and I wanted to change the seat but someone had tried to change it before and striped it out so I left it and just put a new washer on the stem. It works but will fail soon because of the bad seat. I would like to change out the entire shower valve but would have to remove tile.

They stripped the seat because the did not use proper tool to remove it. But even stripped seats will go out if you use the tool designed for seat removal.

Take the tool, put it inside the seat, take a hammer and tap it well several times while pushing the tool inward. The tool will bite into the walls of the seat. Than, put hammer away and while still pushing hard inward - twist the tool CCW. It will go.

The tool has two ends: skinny and long one and fat and short end. When you insert the skinny end, make sure it doesn't hit the back wall of the body. If it does, you have to use the other end.

Seats are not tapered like pipe threads therefore they unscrew quite easily. Let me know how you did. Milo