Repairing Sterling Shower Faucet
I am working on repairing leaking Sterling type 030 shower faucets. Am getting deeper into them to find the right fix. These are the type (non-compression) that turn about 1/4 turn or so from Off to ON (one faucet each for hot & cold). It looks like I have to replace the plastic valve seats - here's where I'm running into difficulty. The seat has an inlet spout that fits into the brass base housing and has a small o-ring around this spout. It is so difficult to push in the new seat with new o-ring into the base that I had to give up and put it in with the old o-ring. So naturally, it still leaks.
Does anyone familiar with this type faucet have a handy trick for doing this?
My next attempt will be to try to seat the new o-ring first, then push in the new seat. If I can't do it simply with a finger, I'll try putting it (the o-ring) on a short section of 1/4" O.D. copper tubing and using a slightly larger piece of tubing to push it in. That's my best idea so far.