Loosened the tank mounting nut instead of supply line nut
Mistakenly loosening the nut that sits tight against the toilet tank instead of the supply line wing nut causes a rubber washer shift and water to leak everywhere. This mistake damages the connection and leaves people dealing with constant dripping out of the plastic fill line nut.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Tightening the top nut back against the tank and using pliers to hold it in place while unscrewing the lower wing nut.
- 2Holding the fill valve from inside the tank so it doesn't spin while loosening the supply line.
- 3Trying multiple replacement fill lines
- 4Applying Teflon tape on the threads
- 5Turning the fitting counter-clockwise until it clicks before tightening to align threads
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Looks like you’ve loosened the nut that sits tight against the tank, can even see the rubber washer above it. Hence the water everywhere.”source ↗
“Got it, thanks! Next question, is this going to be a problem? Do I need a shorter supply line?”source ↗
“I can not get it to stop dripping out the top of the plastic fill line nut.”source ↗
“Anything to do to save the fill line or is it toast? It's brand new”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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