Or... all hail the Gods of Rotory abrasion! Mighty angle grinders and the magnificent little Dremel tool are the heroes of the day. The villian? A little widget of a piece of plastic in the shower faucet that had cracked. The mercenary? One of those obnoxious spring clips Ford is infamous for putting on vacuum lines. The operation? Grind the ears off the clip until it is true round, nothing poking out, and then get the spring clip around the broken shaft to hold the crack closed and reinforce old plastic that is the part that actually turns the valve stem and then, delicately, so very delicately, clearance the inside diameter of the next plastic widget that holds the whole mess centered with the handle. It was almost big enough, almost, I needed maybe 30, 35 thousandths to let everything turn like it should, I had about 120 thousandths of plastic to work with. Enough, just be careful...
Forty five minutes of gentle persuasion and YES, I now have clean feet! And... not only that, I just saved 40 bucks and week or ten days of having the vise grips hanging off the valve stem waiting for the widget to arrive as part of a kit full of other parts I don't need. Victory is sweet.
miss you, my friend. Glad to hear you are still doing what you do best
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