I’m trying to replace my bathroom faucet (I turned off the water supply lines) and cannot get the base of the handles off.
Here are photos of the top and bottom:
Anything I should try?
Plumbing – Faucet handle removal
bathroomfaucetplumbingwater
Related Solutions
I've dealt with these before. The flex pipe is silver soldered into the valve body, probably a product design of the day to dispense with having a problematic compression fitting that would eventually leak.
If you loosen the nut from the pipe nipple, the valve body and flex supply line pipe will be rotatable to position it for a direct lineup to the faucet inlet.
Even if the other end of the metal flex supply line is compatible with the faucet (sounds like it isn't), brass and copper flex work harden from bending into position and can crack if disturbed for later repairs, so I don't recommend reusing it. The only way to fix this is to replace the shutoff valve with a 1/2" to 3/8" right angle shutoff. The newer ones available are nice quarter turn units. Remove the compression fitting nut and ferrule and the 3/8" supply line should thread right on. They use a neoprene flat washer now that gets rid of the leak problem the original silver-soldered supply line was meant to prevent.
You need to remove the piece of bell shaped trim surrounding the cartridge. There is very likely a large nut under there. To avoid scratching i usually wrap the lowest part of this trim with 3-4 winds of masking tape, then undo with water pump pliers. These spread the load nicely. You maybe lucky and get the leaky cartridge first, if not at least you know how to do it,so the next one will be easier.
Best Answer
This is a NUT:
Channel locks or a slip lock wrench will work. Remove the metal piece on the threaded pipe first.
For the top, I agreee with @jstola but it looks kinda like someone may have filled the bell housing with caulk (the white goo out the top doesn't belog there). Once in a while, these housings have a small recessed hole with an allen nut inside; yours does not look like one of these, but if you see a small hole in it that looks useless, it probably is. Also, sometimes these fixtures are also threaded on (and I believe sometimes they are a reverse thread), yours could very well be one of these. If it is caulked inside, you might need to (sensibly) apply some heat to get it to break/melt free. Definitiely try the putty knife idea first, clean off all excess plumbers putty or caulk, and remove anything plastic. Dont cook the countertop.