Wife has damaged the thread on the screw cap of P trap

[u587162]

My wife in her great wisdom, decided one late night to mess around with the P trap on our bathroom sink to get something that fell down the sink rather than using some tweezers.

Anyway, she has managed to screw the thing up whilst putting back together and now the thread is ruined at the top part as you can see in this pic. As a result we now get water leaking from the top one which is on at at angle. I am unable to unscrew any of the caps because they are either so tight or because of the angle and lack of space.

I have bought a new P trap, but is there an easy way I can resolve this issue myself? What if I saw through the middle section, can I then turn the pipe so it unscrews if that top cap is ruined? I have tried using a large wrench type spanner which has a wide enough opening (40mm+) and tried turning it anti-clockwise and it turns ever so little but seems to make the cap go up rather than unscrew. Too tight to turn the other way.

Thanks.

 

[Nige F]

Large wrench type spanner stillsons ? you need water pump pliers and you turned the spanner anti clock - that tighens the nut because it's upside down

 

[bazdaman]

It is anti clockwise to untighten surely!

Ask your wife to loosen the nut off for you, she put it on!

 

[u587162]

We've had arguments over this, believe me but her DIY argument that she wood stained our doors better than me has finally come to an end. She's given up and I still need to be fed dinner each evening so can't argue much more with her!

Anyway, I'm now confused - is it anti-clockwise or clockwise I'm supposed to be turning this? I've got a new P trap ready and it appears to be anti clockwise to turnon the new P tr and it's not to be installed upside down?

 

[Justin Passing]

Anticlockwise if you're looking up its bottom.

 

[TeaTime]

Don't tighten the new one up with stillsons or mole grips (whatever you used to chew that fitting to bits). It seals on a piece of rubber, it won't need that sort of force to get it to be leak free.

Remember, the trap will have water in it when you take it apart, so have a small container ready if you think you are likely to spill the water.

Install the P-trap as you see it in your picture.

It should be clockwise to tighten - anti clockwise to loosen as you look at it.

 

[Justin Passing]

What you do is put a washing up bowl in the bottom of the cupboard, carefully undo the trap and remove it, and empty it into the bowl. It'll be bits of slimy stuff, congealed catfood, and things you don't want to recognise.
Fish out the prized lost jewel.
Then you'll have a bowl with mingin water in it.

To get rid of it, pour it down the sink.
It'll be plenty to splatter the bottom of the cupboard, run out onto the floor, and back under the plinth board, soaking into the raw chipboard edges..

Proper plumbers do it all the time.