Bath tub drain shoe replacement help?

Question

I'm trying to replace the drain shoe assembly on my old bath tub. I got the old one out, but all the ones I've tried from the stores (Lowes, OSH, Home Depot, etc...) are either 1-1/2" or 1-3/8". The 1-3/8" seems to thread into my tub great for the first few turns, but then gets stuck. It will not go and deeper and I'm pretty sure it's the wrong size. I've heard of a 1-1/4" before, but have never seen it in any stores. I would imagine this would be *too* small, but I don't think there are any others out there.

Anyone licensed plumbers or awesome DIYers out there with a suggestion on 1) the actual size I need? and 2) Where can you find drain shoe assemblies in this size?

No way to use the tub until I get this fixed :(

Thx in advance.

Jon

Answer 1

Typically you would replace the entire waste & overflow.  The shoe is the part underneath that the strainer screws into - is it the strainer that you're trying to replace? If so (and you have an odd thread) take it to a plumbing supply rather than a big box store.  Try to match the depth of it as well as the threads.

Answer 2

There is indeed a third size. Not common at all.

You must have a house built in the early sixties.

Anyway, I search all my wholesale outlets. and mail orders houses to no avail for it.

Replaced the first one completely.

The second one I ran accross, the customer didn't have the money for me to replace the waste and overflow, so I cross-threaded the new strainer in the shoe and to this day, doing just fine.

I told my customer I was going to rig it since he didn't want me to do it right, and that was good with him.

Answer 3

Did you save the old one? If you did it should be easy to compare sizes.

My guess is that the threads are gummed up. When you install a drain shoe you should use pipe dope on the threads and a bead of plumbers putty under the lip that meets the tub floor. Pipe dope gets hard with age and will clog up the threads and cause a lot of resistance when threading in a new shoe. Probably the length of threads on the old one was shorter than the new one and excess pipe dope dried on the threads beyond it. There is a special tool  called a tub drain remover that is used to remove and install drain shoes. I bought one at Home Depot a few years ago for about $12. It fits on the inside of the drain shoe and has holes going through it to allow a screwdriver to be inserted for greater leverage. You really need one to do this job properly.