I have a screw on, plastic tub spout that is connected to an iron nipple. When I tried to unscrew the spout, it turned relatively easy, I was able to turn it by hand, but it sounded stripped and ten minutes of turning resulted in ten minutes of plastic slipping noise and no movement on the spout. At this point I got out the dremel and performed some exploratory surgery. I discovered that when the former owner installed the spout, it appears he over tightened it and cracked the plastic that connects to the copper fitting, which is connected to an iron pipe. The crack allowed moisture to seep through and the iron pipe is rusted to the copper fitting.
I've hit it with PB blaster and let it soak in, then tried to unscrew it with channel locks, but to no avail. I'm afraid of trying much more because the fitting is starting to strip. Any ideas of how to remove this easily?

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Originally Posted by hardlinejoe

I have a screw on, plastic tub spout that is connected to an iron nipple. When I tried to unscrew the spout, it turned relatively easy, I was able to turn it by hand, but it sounded stripped and ten minutes of turning resulted in ten minutes of plastic slipping noise and no movement on the spout. At this point I got out the dremel and performed some exploratory surgery. I discovered that when the former owner installed the spout, it appears he over tightened it and cracked the plastic that connects to the copper fitting, which is connected to an iron pipe. The crack allowed moisture to seep through and the iron pipe is rusted to the copper fitting.
I've hit it with PB blaster and let it soak in, then tried to unscrew it with channel locks, but to no avail. I'm afraid of trying much more because the fitting is starting to strip. Any ideas of how to remove this easily?

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I would take a hacksaw and cut as much of the spout away as I could, You should then be able to put a pipe wrench on the adapter and turn it out. If the galvanized nipple comes out replace it with a brass one, Good luck, Tom

Thanks for the response, I dremeled and hacksawed away pretty much the entire spout, the adapter was thoroughly rusted on, but after soaking it in PB Blaster several times and then a couple minutes of gentle heat with a butane torch, it unscrewed pretty easy.

Do you have enough pipe to install a slip on spout? If so that's the one I'd use. Good luck, Tom