How to get off a sink locknut put on upside down
Standard basin wrenches cannot grip the reversed notches of a sink locknut installed upside down, making it nearly impossible to loosen. This prevents homeowners from removing the nut to fix a loose seal or correct the installation.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1buying specialized basin wrench toolsDid this help you?
- 2Holding the bottom nut with a wrench while using another wrench to turn the top insert counterclockwiseDid this help you?
- 3Using a longer wrench for more leverageDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Today, I realized I accident put on the locknut underneath the sink upside down, meaning the seal isn’t as tight as it should be. Now here’s my real problem. I can’t get it loose to flip it right side up. I went and bought one of those tools that’s specifically for loosing and tightening it, but because it’s upside down, I can’t get the tool around the notches.”source ↗
Where this came up
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