Hello,

I'm trying to replace the hot water and cold water shower stem to repair a leaky shower. I'm, however, learning it could be the diverter causing the leak. I don't care at this point; my goal is simply to remove the two stems (for hot and cold water) and replace them. The home is approx 60 years old. Perhaps the stems are that old too...

But, like many novices, I've run into trouble. After removing what I believe was the bonnet nut, which was flush with the wall, I thought I was home free and would have easy access to the stem. Well, what I hope you can see in the picture, the stem is there but disappears into a brass tube, which is flush with the wall/tile and appears to be set in mortar. Am I missing something, or is there no way to remove the stem in this case? Caution, most people quickly jump to "oh, you need a socket wrench." Well, that's what I used to take off the bonnet. Now I'm face with a tube from which the stem protudes. Again, the tube is flush with the wall and appears set in mortar. So, at this point, there is nothing a socket wrench can do. My fear is that I'm going to have to break tile to get more access to remove the stem.

Sorry, no pic here because it's too large to upload. Yet another problem... Help!!

First we should move you to plumbing so some of the guys like Tom or Mark can read your question.

At this point I think you should be trying to unscrew the shower knob further to back out the stem, it may take some effort after 60 years. They don't just slide out ike a cartridge.

First on the pic size. If it's a bitmap pic try converting to JPEG. If still to large go back to Paint and crop to a smaller picture, convert to JPEG and retry.

Now to the faucet.
If this is just a shower you probably have a two handle valve. If it is a tub you probably have a three handle valve with the center handle being the diverter. Sounds like what you removed was the bonnet or compression nut around the stem. This is what prevents water from coming out around the stem. What you need to to get a socket on is the shoulders of the stem itself which is larger and behind the bonnet nut. You most likely will need a set of tub faucet sockets or wrenches. These look like big ugly cheap sockets because that's what they are. Granted you may have to chip out a little tile grout to get the wrench on the shoulders of the stem but that should be no problem.