No water from bathtub faucet

[AngelSoft]

First off, forgive my lack of knowledge in technical terms. Having a mom who wanted to keep me 'prim and proper' and two brothers who help with everything 'manly', I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to these sort of things.

So I recently bought an older (1978) manufactured home. Overall it's in pretty nice shape but there's a few things here and there that need fixed. The main one is the bathtub in the main bathroom. It has a 'three knob' system. There's a knob for hot water, cold water and then to turn 'on' the shower as opposed to the faucet. Well the problem is, the water comes out fine from the shower but if you try to get it to come out of the faucet, there's lots of hissing noises and water starts to leak from the 'shower on/off' knob. Maybe a small trickle of water from the faucet but basically nothing.

My brother, having had this issue with his older tub, figured he could fix it. First he tried removing the shower knob and checking for something, but that wasn't it. Then he decided it might be something in the pipe hookups. So luckily (according to him) the previous owners had already cut out a hole from the wall on the other side of the bathtub to expose the piping leading to the knobs and faucet. He checked though out and couldn't find anything obvious. At that point he realized the problem was outside his comfort level and told me I'd have to deal or get a plumber. Being shit poor and also afraid of being taken advantage of for being an 'ignorant woman', I'm not too keen on this idea. Does anyone have any clues about what could be causing this or perhaps something else me or my brother could check for?

[The Flying Dutchman]

First off, forgive my lack of knowledge in technical terms. Having a mom who wanted to keep me 'prim and proper' and two brothers who help with everything 'manly', I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to these sort of things.

So I recently bought an older (1978) manufactured home. Overall it's in pretty nice shape but there's a few things here and there that need fixed. The main one is the bathtub in the main bathroom. It has a 'three knob' system. There's a knob for hot water, cold water and then to turn 'on' the shower as opposed to the faucet. Well the problem is, the water comes out fine from the shower but if you try to get it to come out of the faucet, there's lots of hissing noises and water starts to leak from the 'shower on/off' knob. Maybe a small trickle of water from the faucet but basically nothing.

My brother, having had this issue with his older tub, figured he could fix it. First he tried removing the shower knob and checking for something, but that wasn't it. Then he decided it might be something in the pipe hookups. So luckily (according to him) the previous owners had already cut out a hole from the wall on the other side of the bathtub to expose the piping leading to the knobs and faucet. He checked though out and couldn't find anything obvious. At that point he realized the problem was outside his comfort level and told me I'd have to deal or get a plumber. Being shit poor and also afraid of being taken advantage of for being an 'ignorant woman', I'm not too keen on this idea. Does anyone have any clues about what could be causing this or perhaps something else me or my brother could check for?

I'm 99% sure the problem is in the shower/faucet selector.

Assuming it is the push in/pull out type of selector, I suggest you take a wrench and turn it out and look at the O rings on the piston. there should be at least two. These are made of rubber and look like slender donuts.

Either an O ring has been damaged or it may have moved itself to the wrong location on the piston by jumping a flange.

You may have to get a replacement O ring at the hardware store and if you do, take the piston with you to help select the right diameter and thickness. Snug to the shaft and slightly protruding above to flange for a seal.

You'll know what I'm talking about once you pull the selector/piston.

[AngelSoft]

Does it make a difference if the knob has to be turned and isn't push in/out?

[The Flying Dutchman]

All I can tell you then is that your problem still lies with the valve system that your selector knob controls.

If you could just pull out that thingie again and look at the seals or take it to someone else for a look it might help. It takes less than a minute to take out.

[MatthewStabile]

I whole-heartily agree with The Flying Dutchman.

That middle knob that selects the faucet or shower head probably has two valves in it. One to open/close the path to the shower head, and the other to open/close the faucet, both working opposite each other to achieve the desired action. The valve that open/closes the showerhead is probably malfuctioning due to an old seal. It should be very easy to check yourself by first making sure that both the hot and cold knobs are completely off, then do exactly as The Flying Dutchman said.