Renewing the Eljer faucets

[MikeP]

One of the oem Eljer faucets on our 53MY has been seeping from around the base whenever the water was turned on. We've been ignoring it for quite a while (as in 5 years!) but this AM I decided to pull it apart with the idea of renewing all the seals on all 3 heads (6 faucets). The faucets all look virtually new chrome-wise so there was no need to replace them as far as appearance is concerned

The faucets looked a little odd to me - especially the way the handles are attached and at first I was confused because there was no cap on top or set-screw on the side but it turned out to be pretty simple and all the new washers/gaskets for all 6 of them came to less than 10 bucks at the local True Value.

The handles are held by a little piece of metal that locks into a slot on the handle. Once I noticed the slot, it was just a matter of pushing a small screwdriver in to depress the metal tab and lifting the handle off. The rest is just faucet repair 101 and requires 3 new gaskets/seals.

Attached is a pic of the assorted pieces and the new gaskets. You can see the slot on the side of the handle.

 

[sgharford]

Great Info and Picture - Thanks Mike! - I've been ignoring mine for 3 years. It's great seeing a picture to inspire actually getting it done.

 

[Angela]

I'm ignoring mine too. I don't like them or the sinks at all and can't bring myself to work on something I'm going to replace altogether. That said, it's been 4 years for me that I've been ignorning them. I should probably do this too, but my faucets are not in pretty condition. These are odd faucets/sinks - they way they mount at an angle, so to replace them, the sink has to go too. I've never seen a faucet/sink set up like this - they mount at a 45° angle rather than on a flat surface. A new faucet on an old sink looks funny because of the angle in which the sink accepts the faucet.

For now, I'll just keep ignoring them.

 

[MikeP]

Back when we bought the boat we thought about new sinks/fixtures but after doing some looking we figured out that those sinks/faucets were chosen by Hatt to provide the largest possible sink in the counter space available. Anything that will actually mount in the countertop ends up too small as far as we are concerned.

So we decided that we preferred the larger oem sink to a "modern" one that would be considerably smaller. Of course, if the Eljers had looked bad - chrome worn off, etc - we would have opted for a new sink/fixtures regardless. But they look new when wiped clean and new washers/seals are just standard hardware store stuff so they will probably stay on the boat as long as it's ours.

 

[bigbill]

mike, do you have a brand name, model number,or size,of the kit? i would like to have all of the kits in hand when i start to replace them, instead of taking them apart, then running to the store to purchase them, return to the boat to install. i am 2 hours from the boat, and dont want to pull stuff apart that i cant fix right away. thanks, bigbill

 

[MikeP]

Bill - sorry no, it wasn't a kit. I just went to True Value and hunted through their boxes of washers/ seals 'till I found the ones that matched the parts on the faucet I took in.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

My boat came with regular flat mounting area sinks. It was easy to replace the faucets on those with standard 4" spread faucets.

 

[holtcl]

Mike,

I just went through this with Cinderella- all three faucet sets essentially needed rebuilding; if you still need any info would be glad to help out...will be around.

Best,
Cheryl

 

[Buccaneer]

Does anyone have a set sitting around? Im putting an OEM sink back, and dont have the fixtures/faucets.

 

[Toolsntoys]

I will be taking my sink out and replacing with a corian under mount. How much of a rush are you in? You are welcome to have it when it's out. Could be a couple months.

 

[SEVEN]

I love the fact that you're restoring what you have. I was unfortunate or fortunate depending on how you look at it. When I bought my 53' the PO had installed new granite countertops and new faucets. Don't get me wrong I love the look but I certainly like to keep it historically accurate.

 

[nautibake]

Does anyone have a set sitting around? Im putting an OEM sink back, and dont have the fixtures/faucets.

I bought a "pre-owned" OEM sink and fixture from http://skippersmarine.com/

He is a fellow HOF and owner of a 53. One of my sinks was cracked, and I had a fixture badly corroded. Not sure if he has any more in-stock, I found mine on his ebay listing. They were in great shape, big improvement until I decide to do something else. Good luck...

 

[Beachcomber]

Just finished renewing all of our faucets and thought I would add the Danco numbers for the repair parts.

 

[MVCaprice]

Thanks for the part numbers. We just pulled the sinks and threw in new counter tops and faucets for most of ours, but a couple are leaking so this helps a lot!