Current Events > Any plumbers here? Or people who have done their own shower repairs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Had a leaky shower handle and through internet research discovered the cartridge needed replacing. A friend and I were able to rip what we thought was the cartridge but was simply the stem of the cartridge out. The brass sleeve was still stuck in the valve.

So I found out I needed this tool that goes in and locks into one of the holes in the back of the sleeve and yanks it out:

https://www.plumbingsupply.com/images/stem-cartridge-wrench.jpg

Put it in deep (giggity) and moved it til it locked into place. Then it wouldn't move. At all. Thought I was fucked but eventually it started wiggling a bit. Eventually got mad and beat the shit out of it with a hammer, and now the sleeve freely rotates 360 degrees in the valve with the tool still in place.

It's so old and corroded and I can't get the fucker to come out. I'm practically ripping the pipes out of the wall and I'm terrified to pull any harder because I might turn what should be a simple fucking task into a several thousand dollar plumber bill.

I'd be happy if I could at least get the damn tool out.

Luckily I'm able to turn the water back on to the house since the tool is blocking the water. Leak has been fixed but I can't turn the shower on now :(

I read somewhere that someone heated the valve with a hairdryer and it apparently loosened things up so they could pull the whole thing out...is that something that could actually work? It seems odd to use a hairdryer on a pipe.
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