Modern toilet hard to flush


  #1  
Old 10-03-22, 02:16 PM
R
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Modern toilet hard to flush

My toilet knowledge is 50 years old. This is my girlfriend's modern toilet in her rental house.

The flush handle kept falling off. I bought a new handle close to the length of the old handle and hooked the chain to the end of the actuating rod.

What happens is the flush cylinder turns clockwise after several flushes and the chain repositions itself so that it does not have enough leverage to lift the mechanism to start the flush.

Directly above where the cylinder rotates to, the flush rod has a groove. Is the chain somehow supposed to be attached there? It is not a hole, just a groove.

I think there is just something about these modern toilets that needs to be explained to me.

Here is a picture: you can see the chain going around to the left edge of the cylinder, directly below the hard-to-see groove in the rod


While we're at this, the handle has already fallen off. There is no set screw. The square hole in the handle just pushes on to the square end of the rod. If it just pushes on, a little pull and it comes right off.

What am I missing in all of this? Until now my girlfriend thought I knew everything.

R.
 
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Old 10-03-22, 02:32 PM
S
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Is the chain too long? I have had to shorten some in the past.

Also, when you say, 'rental,' I have inferred she is the owner and renting it out. If she is the tenant, this is all moot as the landlord should be contacted to take care of it.
 
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Old 10-03-22, 05:28 PM
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As I recall, most toilet flush levers have a square hub that fits a square indentation in the tank. That's what keeps it from rotatating. So take it apart and see if the plastic square hub is stripped. It works like a carriage bolt, and should not allow the hub to rotate when the nut is tight... just the handle and arm should move independently.
 
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Old 10-04-22, 06:17 AM
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flush levers have a square hub that fits a square indentation in the tank.
What I have found is often the square handle plug fits very loose in the square hole in the tank. You might need to put in a very slim shim to hold the handle in place.
 
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