Replacing shower diverter pin

Question

I have a 1985 house with a no-visible-brand faucet in a very inaccessible space (I’d love to bust it out and replace everything, but that’s beyond my time and money budget right now, and possibly beyond my expertise; I’ve been quoted at four figures due to the inaccessibility of the space, against an exterior wall in a tight corner).

The thing that you pull up to make the shower go — I’ll call it the diverter pin — corroded through, so the wider bottom part snapped off like a metal ball, leaving the rest of the pin free to pull out without pulling the body of the diverter up to block the water flow.

Is there a reasonable way to repair or replace this? I’m not sure how the pin goes in when it’s installed normally, is it just pushed in from the top with the plastic diverter body flexing to let the thick part through? In that case a similar pin could replace it, or I could marine epoxy it together. (I tried epoxying it together in situ, but that was too hard to apply and keep steady unsurprisingly.)

This is the diverter pin:

This is the faucet:

Answer 1

Trying to epoxy a corroded part like that is unlikely to be effective. Depending on the make and style of tub faucet you have it's usually best to simply replace the entire faucet, diverter included. Most faucets such as the one pictured simply screw onto a stub that protrudes from the wall.

If yours is similar you might want to replace it in its entirety.

You'll want to be careful in trying to unscrew it from the wall since it may be corroded as well. You'll want to turn it counter-clockwise by hand being careful not to apply too much pressure. You don't want to break the pipe connection in the wall. If there is caulk around the spout carefully cut it with a utility knife. If the spout doesn't turn at first gently pull the spout away from the wall just enough to get some WD40 down onto the connecting fitting although it might be difficult if the connection is toward the front of the spout.. Let it sit for a minute or two and try again. When you install the new one just wrap a turn or two of teflon tape clockwise around the theaded stub.