I'm working on old apartment building.. trying to replace old sayco diverter stem.the newer one I bought at a plumbing house look like a perfect match but when I install part of the water still flows out tub spout when it is diverted to shower.. not many moving parts... hard to see where problem lies.. anyone have any similar experience or ideas... thank you very much.. it is not a tub spout pull up problem.. its athree handle systemfromthe early 70s.

When you pull the diverter water should backup into the valve and flip a flap inside the valve. When the flap has been tripped water will go upo the shower pipe to the shower head. You diverter is not stopping the water. It looks like a fit but it isn't. Can you take the old parts with you to the store? That will help.

A diverter stem works by closing either the spout port or the shower port therefore it has a front seal and a back seal. If your new stem has no 'loose' washer that is there for the back seal then it will not seal it. The operation of a diverter stem is so simple yet sometimes a new one simply does not work. Take it back and get another one.

I had the same "water still going out the spigot when the shower was on" problem.

I got a replacement kit and the new stem still had the same symptom.

I was looking online and found a picture of the part that showed two o-rings and a rubber washer. My unit just had the one o-ring and the instructions didn't say anything about the second o-ring.

It turns out that second o-ring is the solution and the old unit had the o-ring fail so it was just in tiny pieces when I took the thing apart.

I found that missing o-ring in the bottom of the bag of the replacement kit and it works great now.

Good luck!

Jon Boyd Ann Arbor real estate Exclusive Buyer's Agent

It is hard to find the old Sayco diverter stem, go to Lowe's they carry Sayco faucet stems, open the link below and you will see the kit it takes 2 O rings and one washer if one Oring is missing you will have this problem' Thanks.

John

http://www.plumbingpartsdepot.com/sayco3vlv.pdf

Faucet TS Stem - For Sayco Diverter - AZ Partsmaster

John, this thread is 2 years old.

Jon Boyd: start new thread with your question... Don't revive old threads.

Sorry Milo,

I didn't pay attention to the date just wanted to help, and Jon Boyd didn't open this thread with my question he started look at post #4 and my answer is post #5, Thanks.

Regards,
John