While attempting leaky faucet repair, I found I couldn't budge the cold water cutoff knob under the sink. When I finally broke it loose, it shot out, gushing water everywhere! I finally got it back in and leak stoppped. Now the faucet works OK, but the knob is in the off position. When I turn it toward the on position, water gushes out around the valve, so I can't use the cutoff now. What's going on, and how do I fix it?

Hi Bill...

Most likely the PACKING NUT behind the handle is so loose that it leaks badly when turned on. Here, tighten the packing nut about hand tight and then start to open the valve... water will drip out, but then you will just tighten the packing nut a little more until the water finally stops dripping.

Use two pair of pliers to make the final tightening when you are sure that water flows from the faucet and the dripping has stopped from the packing nut. Here, use one pair of pliers to hold the valve body and the other pair of pliers to make a final 1/8th turn or so to put this to bed!

If that fails to fix this then the packing nut itself may be cracked and will need to be replaced (entire valve OR depending on age of the shutoff, just a new stem and packing nut assembly from a new shutoff).

Back to you...

Mark

Hope I'm doing this correctly. I've already tried to send thanks to my helpers: Massplumbers and Stratmando. Don't know if I did it successfully or not. Thanks again. billMciver