Hello all need your help with a broken tub drain. It’s a typical 70’s cast iron tub (in the greatest shade of green) with the lever that goes up and down to open and close the drain. It had been getting very had to move and the drain was extremely slow to drain. I removed the two shrews, hopping I could pull the bunger/stopper up and could clean out, lube, whatever was making it hard to move. Well, while trying to pull it up, the linkage broke.

My question is what can I do to get the stopper/plunger out? With out cutting into the drain pipe.

Thanks for any insight.

Scott

Hey Scott,

You already have the face plate and linkage removed so you're halfway there.
The stopper plug that's down there is called "the bucket" This bucket has a cross bar that the linkage connects to on top. Simply take a coathanger, put a hook in it and fish that sucker out. Good luck, tom

Thanks Tom!

Whatever was making the bucket hard to move, must have it good and stuck now. I have been trying to fish it out with a coat hanger, but after hooking it and pulling really really hard, the hook on the end of the coat hanger just bends straight... no bucket.

I will add that because of this problem the bath/shower has not been used in a while, so its bone dry in there. What about pouring in some sort of lubricant? Water, Vegetable oil, w2-40, etc...

Thanks again
Scott

I agree with tom, but it takes a lot of wd40 and a very stiff wire or metal hook. Let it sit a few hours after spraying heavily with wd40