Cool! There’s a set of those in my garage, left behind by my gf’s ex-husband. TIL what they are.
No one needs to buy a basin wrench. I’ve never bought one . . . but somehow I own three.
Basin wrenches are the wire hangers of tools.
CMC
I ended up having to tighten my kitchen faucet with a piece that looked like the chopped off end of a spanner with a hole to take a 1/4" ratchet. then used a 1/4 socket holder on a screw driver with replaceable heads. Not the best, but it worked in close quarters.
It seems to me there’s a set screw (?) with a square head securing the clip to the underside of the central faucet. I’d try taking that out to remove the clip so you can get at the nut on the threaded part (sink closure?)
Do the clips on the underside of each tap (like the one with the “cold” label) just pry off sideways?
I would even guess the central white part with the gray top is just press-fitted on the brass pipe since I don’t see and fastener and the spout would not really be under pressure. Try pulling it down. and off.
Holy crap, going forward these are indeed going to go by the name “shitty fitty” in my vocabulary. Big thanks to everyone who contributed, especially @LSLGuy who was correct about the u-shaped bars pivoting, once they are loosened far enough. One of the handles is completely disassembled now, so I understand how it all goes together. There are way too many unnecessary parts to this whole thing, as the top side was just as over-engineered. I’d probably be done except the second handle seems to be rusted shut and I don’t want to hit it with PB B’laster this late in the day as the wife hates the smell and this is her bathroom.
Once again, thanks for all of the help. If enough parts survive the operation, I’ll try to get more pics to show what a mess this was.
All done. As promised, here are two photos that show the weird apparatus (which hold the handles in place) in both positions. As @LSLGuy stated in describing the faucet, the assembly can pivot once it is unscrewed far enough, and then can be pulled out from the top.
Open (state when secured to top and bottom of counter):
Pivotted (state when you can pull it out through the countertop hole):
What is the long rod hanging down from the spout?
I was pretty clear from looking that you had pivot clamps, (which I’ve never seen before) but the spout clamp confused me – I don’t know what that thing is.
– in Australia it’s illegal to do your own ‘plumbing’, and all taps have to be locally approved, so there is little incentive to make it easier
That’s the lift rod. I had already disassembled the other parts such as the strap, as I put in a pop-up drain as the first step.
I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how it could work and not be connected to anything
Lift things have never been as popular in Aus as they are in the USA – every house I or my family have ever lived in has just used rubber stoppers as required.
I can not really tell from the picture but here is my SWAG. If you pull the clips off the bottom of the fixture you should be able to remove the water lines in and out. That will leave a round brass piece and it looks like it may be threaded. On the top disassemble as much as possable. Hopefully you will be left with a hot and cold water faucet that are round and not connected to each other of the center. From the top turn the whole faucet body. It should turn unscrewing the bracket under the counter top. After the bracket is loos enough you should be able to flip the bracket up and the whole thing should come out the top. The problem will be if the bracket turns with the body of the faucet.