Today in the shower, a dropping shampoo bottle snapped off a little piece, and I’m trying to figure out how to fix it. The problem is that I don’t know what it’s called, so I don’t know what to Google.
On the top of the tub faucet is a little knob. When the water is running, you pull up on the knob, and it redirects the water to the showerhead instead of the tub. While we were showering, this knob was up, on a little stalk. This stalk is what broke, and subsequently, a little assembly that was inside the tub faucet fell out. It was a little plastic piece with a spring. I assume we’ll have to replace this whole assembly, but what is it???
As Mike said, it is a diverter.
The part to replace is the tub faucet. The pipe where the water comes out when taking a bath. They screw on to the actual water pipe. It theory they are easy to replace-unscrew the old one screw on the new one. The problem is that it will be hard to unscrew. corrosion. If you twist too hard you will break the pipe. The normal procedure is to get a wrench on the threaded pipe-usually from the inspection port behind the plumbing. Without such access, it is tricky.
Hopefully more experienced people than I will chime in, but I have had some success with patience. Put some torque on the faucet and hold it for several minutes. It sometimes will gradually loosen until you can unscrew the faucet.
Failing that, I have taken the tile off the wall and reached the pipe that way. Turns a simple job into quite an effort though.
if you get some movement in loosening then give it a slight twist tighter. the corrosion can bunch up in the threads and cause more friction and binding up. if every little bit you give it a slight tighten it spreads out the corrosion particles.
Some bathtub faucets (I want to say spout or spigot) are not threaded on, but are instead held onto the pipe by a set screw installed into the bottom of the faucet. Have a look underneath yours for a small hole with a hexagon shaped dimple inside just to be sure. The set screw would be loosened with an allen wrench and the whole thing would slip off.