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I am trying to replace my kitchen faucet and have encountered a nut that I don’t know how to get at. As you can see the nut is bounded by counter (green) on one side and sink (red) on the other. I’ve tried various wrenches but can’t seem to get them in there. What’s the right way to get this thing off?

The pipe that it’s on is about 2.5 inches long.

faucet nut

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  • I used pliers but it was rusty, so I used WD40 and it helped
    – cagri
    Nov 17, 2018 at 19:23
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    WD40 is not much help on rust, and that's not what it's designed for. You want Pb Blaster, Liquid Wrench, or a similar product.
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Nov 17, 2018 at 23:32
  • Why won't a ratchet and long reach socket do the trick?
    – BossRoss
    Nov 19, 2018 at 11:46
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    @DanielGriscom I called a guy and he came and chopped the faucet off at the top with a sawzall. Took about 1 minute. Made me feel real dumb for spending all that time trying to get off from the bottom.
    – BinaryTox1n
    Nov 19, 2018 at 15:19
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    Glad it worked out. You might want to add this to your question (as a "this is what ended up happening" edit), or even as a new answer (as a "ended up cutting the faucet off from the top" statement). Whatever would help someone in the future who's in your situation.
    – Daniel Griscom
    Nov 19, 2018 at 16:00

3 Answers 3

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What you want is a basin wrench:

Basin wrench (Source)

The left end pivots so you can reach up under the sink and access the nut.

That said, you have some serious corrosion going on there. You might have to go with destructive methods, perhaps involving grinding off the top of the faucet.

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    Wow! Ten up-votes in three hours! There seems to be a deep need for basin wrench answers...
    – Daniel Griscom
    Nov 17, 2018 at 19:44
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    I picked up a basin wrench and can tell its what should have worked, but your intuition was right - it’s so corroded it won’t budge. I get to ask another question about how to remove a corroded faucet now.
    – BinaryTox1n
    Nov 17, 2018 at 19:52
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    It's interesting, I actually had bought one like that, when replacing toilet fill valve, but never understood how to make it grip anything. In the end I have found that for those hard to reach places something like deep hex sockets seem to work best. I don't know what's the proper English name for them, but they are like long hex tubes with 2 holes in 1 end, where you can insert a metallic stick for helping with turning. Probably meant for cars. Maybe wouldn't work on OP nut, since it seems to be very round
    – Gnudiff
    Nov 17, 2018 at 21:24
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    @Gnudiff Those would be known as box spanners.
    – Andrew Morton
    Nov 17, 2018 at 23:22
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    Or try using a simpler crow's foot spanner which actually will often do the job better
    – Graham
    Nov 18, 2018 at 1:11
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You could use a box spanner, the pipe will go up the body of the spanner and the pin used to turn the spanner is not fixed.

I have used basin wrenches ( I know them as tap wrenches ) but sometime get frustrated with them!

enter image description here

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7

File a bit of steel pipe so that you have two pins that match the notches in the nut - this will lengthen the nut to a point where you can apply normal tools.

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  • Making a tool is always possible - may not be the quickest nor cheapest solution but its the most educational.
    – Criggie
    Nov 18, 2018 at 7:35

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