Repairing leaking toilet tank - not original plans for day

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so most stores - especially plumbing supply/DIY stores - were closed. Fate has a sense of humor, so we found ourselves yesterday keeping a plastic container under one side of a toilet tank where water had decided to start dripping.

My mission today was simple: pick up a toilet tank seal kit (rubber gasket for between the tank and the toilet, and the bolts / washers / seals (2 bolts - one on either side) that fasten the tank to the toilet, and fix it. Easy right? Wrong.

Turns out the builder cut a few corners as some builders are wont to do. The water valve at the wall did not work to shut off the water. And it was a cheap piece of crap valve with the water hose that goes up to the toilet tank incorporated into the valve. I hate those types of plumbing components! OK ...I popped over to our nearby ACE Hardware, which is a small neighborly store, populated by guys who have been doing plumbing and electrical and everything in construction for forever and know frickin' everything. In short order I had the needed parts and some teflon plumbing paste and was back home. The easy part was done.

Turned off the water at the street, cut the plastic water pipe that had the old valve (fortunately there was over an inch of extra pipe sticking out of the wall, so that made it easy), and put the new valve in place. Hey, even with the house water turned back on, this higher quality new valve worked. Go figure.

OK, the real PITA was that one of the holes in the tank was not quite large enough for the bolt. On one side, the bolt popped through the hole nice and easy, I slapped some teflon paste above and below the fiber washer, and snugged things up just fine. But I swear it took an hour on the PITA side to twist the bolt back and forth and coerce it through the hole (a smarter man would probably have reamed out the hole a little, but I was afraid I'd crack the porcelain or do other damage).

Finally, the blasted 2nd bolt was in place, I smothered the fiber washer with teflon goo and slapped some between the metal washer and the porcelain on the underside (there were some small chips of porcelain gone - I suspect from the original installation - so I wanted the extra insurance of the teflon paste), and the assembly was tightened down.

More teflon paste on the inside of the large center gasket, flip the tank over, carefully snug up the wingnuts on either side of the tank bolts, attach the new water line, adjust the float, and about 3 hours after starting, the job that should have taken 30 minutes was done. The good news is that it all works and there are no leaks ...for a total outlay of a few dollars.

These three very short videos (1, 2, 3) by an experienced plumber were a great help.

Pics of the PITA stage ...and back to a working crapper :) ...