I love to run a 'search' on old DU posts. Sometimes I can find an answer

[Paper Roses]

to my current crisis and it saves me the embarrassment of asking for help again.
This time it is the kitchen sink. I have a double SS sink. Disposal on the left. I place dish drainer in the right.
The right, under the actual drain cover seems to be leaking. I noticed h2o on the floor of the cabinet the other day. As I look, I cannot find the leak but the BIG nut that holds the drain assembly to the brass drain pipe is badly corroded and seems to have chunks missing. Who looks at that anyway? The drain pike comes straight down, takes an elbow turn and goes into the drain pipe under the disposal.I wonder,if the rest of the piping is good, is there a way to replace that big nut without ruining the whole assembly? I can buy that nut at Ace, I'm sure, but I have no idea how far the brass pipe goes in into the drain or if it is replaceable. Is there a gasket of some kind in there?
Geese, I'm getting good at this odd sort of stuff. Thanks to you folks, I just replaced the corner boards on the "EL" of my house. Keeping this old place in order is now a big problem. I sure appreciate the help.
PR

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. Sounds to me like you need a new "drain basket" and strainer assembly.

And maybe a new tail piece - the straight pipe exiting the drain assembly.


It should be relatively easy for you to change out. The baskets run from, IIRC, 12 bucks for a cheap one to 40 bucks for a better quality Kohler at Home Depot.

See this video for an idea of what you are dealing with:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5IFLmjtJ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3tB34H-Q84

This one goes in to more detail in the event you desire/need to change some or all the pipe underneath.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykikb_7Fxx4&feature=related

I prefer to work with PVC as shown in the video. It's easy to cut and it's cheap. ACE will sell the parts separately or in a bag with all you need.

I suppose you COULD replace only the nut and the "compression gasket" that fastens the tail piece to the drain basket assembly but, for my money, you could spend 5? 10? bucks for the drain pipe kit and 12 bucks for the basket assembly and replace it all. Just mirror what you have now.

I like that tip in the third video of applying a little pipe dope to the compression fittings. Technically you shouldn't HAVE to do that on compression fittings but it probably save a lot of "fussing" with the connections. I'll have to try that.