Hey 2008, thanks for the quick, excellent comeback. Your drain illustration is exactly my drain,. I'm presuming there is a flange nut below the threaded piece (13)'though it's not visible.. I own a "removal Tool" but when applied the whole unit turns,. I'm now thinking I'm going to have to cut away some of the floor (tile on 1x10 plank)to gain enough head room to use a wrench on the lower part of the tail piece but by loosening this nut, will that only allow the upper basket to turn more easily but not separate... Aside from all this, can ask from your experience, am I correct in thinking the original installers must have set the whole tub vertically down on the tail piece as I'm sure the plank floor is at least 50 yrs old. If the foreman (wife) asks why I'm not working I'll tell her I'm waiting for an answer. LOL.. thanks again... CORNEY

Hi Corney

#13 is a rubber washer under the tub... seals the drain to the tub.

Find a way, such as a long pair of pliers and hold #14 (waste shoe) and then have a friend loosen the basket strainer using the removal tool. Alternatively, you could try to "block" the drain from turning using wood pieces... stuff like that... and then try the removal tool again.

If this drain is plastic you shouldn't need to work too hard to loosen that strainer. You want to remove the strainer basket, right, or am I missing something here?

And yeah, we lower tubs down onto the tub waste assemblies when needed... ;)

Also, post your responses back to this thread... thanks!

Hello again Massplumber,
Bottom line of this exercise is to completely remove the tub hopefully without damaging it. Since my last message I got the brain wave of removing the pump to lessen weight then gently lifting the tub high enough to have my trusty helper insert a couple of 2x4s under the tub support pads. Reaching through the new floor cut I was able to loosen the choke nut on top of the P-trap and luckily, as I expected, there was enough ply in the ABS drain line to raise as well and after a series of lifting a few,inches,gently tapping down the ABS then adding more blocks we were able to raise the tub high enough so the tailpiece became free of the P-trap assembly. The original installers were sure confident of no leaks or no clogged P-trap 'cause short of cutting a service hole in the floor like I had to do, there was just no way to get in to the water supply lines, drain line or P-trap. Thanks again for the great advice, now if you want to come north and help me carry it out it would be much appreciated. LOL... thanks again... CORNEY