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View Full Version : Are the stems in older shower bodies interchangeable?


DCMatt415
Mar 11, 2012, 06:48 PM
I have walk-in shower that was in this older house when I bought it (about 30 years old) not sure if this was in there originally or not. The "teeth" on the end of the stems where the shower handles are mounted were worn down so the handles kind of did a free-spin type thing and it was very difficult to get the water to stop leaking from the shower head when you turned them off, I removed the stems from the valve body and took them to Lowe's to match them up, the ones that matched were "sayco" and the part was made by a company called danco. I really want to update the look of my bathroom, but I want to do it without having to replace the valve body because that would entail going through the wall in the other bathroom to change it. The problem I'm having is that there isn't any other sayco brand handles or trim that I can find anywhere, and the end of the stem where the handles go on are a small star shape similar to price pfister but smaller. What I want to know is, can I use the same valve body and replace it with different stems that will fit something a little less obscure?

speedball1
Mar 12, 2012, 06:49 AM
If the old stems are OK except for the splines being worn down why not simply replace the handles with Universal Replacement Handles? They have a sharp screw that bites into the old spline. Here's a link from Danco. Danco Corp. A0088517 Universal Faucet Handle Kit (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&gs_nf=1&cp=36&gs_id=4&xhr=t&q=universal+replacement+faucet+handles&rlz=1W1GGNI_enUS466&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=683&bih=330&wrapid=tljp133156042603300&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=18383411850391347328&sa=X&ei=_f9dT4vbJOrL0QGPwsTGDw&sqi=2&ved=0CHwQ8wIwAQ#)
Good luck, Tom