Just learned that it make a difference which way you put the stopper in a sink pop up assembly.

Had to replace sink drain in wife's bath sink. She let some kind of cleaner sit in the sink and ruined the brass finish on the drain flange. New pop up wouldn't open as much as the old one. After fiddling around for a while I realized that if the tab of the of the stopper that the rod goes through is turned toward the back of the sink, the stopper will rise a certain amount when opened. If the tab is turned toward the front the stopper will rise about twice as much.

Somebody should give me a reddie for being dumb.

Hi Harold...

Double check that the stopper is actually engaged in the rod... betting it isn't and that is why the stopper raised so much when turned around... :p

My decision to install the stopper in front or back is usually dependent on whether my customer wants to be able to remove the stopper and clean it on a regular basis without having to mess with the nut underneath the sink or not. Hairy people love this option!

Here, installed RIGHT as you drew it above you just need to tilt the stopper forward to disengage and clean. If the stopper is installed WRONG as drawn above then the stopper can't be removed at all. This doesn't work for all stoppers, but most of them anyway.

I have actually spent some good time on this subject and have played with 100s of pop-ups and it's not that I haven't run into a few that weren't an exception to this, but most stoppers have some wiggle room that basically brings the stopper... whether in right or wrong position... to the same center point on the rod when lifting the stopper rod and basically get the same result/height on the stopper most every time.

Like I said, you could have one of the exceptions, but when you said "TWICE THE HEIGHT" in the stopper it reminded me of the times when I missed the hole in the stopper and I got twice the height on the stoppers, too... :)

Double check that the stopper is engaged properly... let me know.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Stopper is engaged, its just that there is a lot more travel to the end of the rod than there is to the rod closer to the pivot point in the nut. I prefer to just let stopper sit on the rod and be removable, but the rod has to stay in the center of the pipe or the end of some stoppers can fall down past the rod.

Just amazed that as long as I have been doing this kind of thing I didn't realize it before now. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Hi Harold,

You are not dumb things happen and this how we learn, Mark explained it very well, good luck.

John

Hey Harold,
Mark gave you a excellent answer. We don't tie down lavatory stoppers in our new construction. We slip them in so the rod levers up the flat side. We have had call backs where the homeowner is attempting to clear hair out of the drain and can't remove the stopper to do so.
You have the right idea to let the stopper float instead of tying it down. But I* see your reasoning behind tying the stopper down with the opening at the farthest end of the rod. Good luck, Tom

Congratulations , Harold ! :D