Cartridges Tool

Cartridges Tool
My cartridge faucet leaked so I replaced the cartridges but it still leaks.?

I could not get the washers and springs out below the cartridge because they are flush with the housing.

I’ve been at this a long, long time, it seems, and in all the years of trying to save my customers money by just replacing the bare minimum in parts has usually proven to be a fallacy. What you did was pull out the twist cartridges, replace them and left the seals and springs in the valve body, which really did nothing to help the leak. The seals and springs are the parts that apply pressure to the bottoms of those cartridges to keep the water from flowing out. The fact that they’re stuck in the valve body is what the problem is. There’s most likely rust, iron, lime, calcium, something in your water that builds up over time to cause this problem, as there is in most locations in the country. You’ll need a small screwdriver to put down into the hole in the center of the seal, tip it sideways and pop it and the spring loose and out. When you reinstall new seals, if you do, put some vaseline on them beforehand, it allows them to get some lubrication while in the tight little sleeve hole, so the spring can actually do it’s work. I’ve acutally found that many times, by the time I replace both cartridges and seals and springs, that we could have bought a new faucet with a warranty for just a few dollars more.