Repair Older American Standard Ballcock Fill Valve

Older American Standard Ballcock fill valve. Use Google Search images to find your valve type. There are many different ones.

Recently the water pipes on my street were refurbished. as a result a lot of gunk they scraped off was flushed through my water system. Shortly after my older American Standard toilet started acting up, like it was not getting water into the tank. While there are a lot of sites and videos that show you how to replace the ballcock fill valve there are none that show you how to repair it. Here is how I repaired mine. It was very easy.

The problem was that with my water pipes being refurbished there was a lot of crap flushed into my system, clogging up the toilet fill valve. My toilet was taking a long time to fill, and was constantly running. Turning the fill adjusting screw either turned the water off too early or the water kept filling. This fill valve allows water to fill the upper tank, but stops at the required water mark. Here is how to clear the gunk from your fill valve.

At the end of the long plastic arm was a screw-on white float. When water rises this float goes up, shutting off the valve and stopping the water from filling the tank. It is really not complicated.

Note that this procedure takes only 5 minutes, requires few tools, and is very clean because you never touch dirty water or the lower bowl.

Tools Required

1. Flat head screwdriver: Used to loosen height adjustment screw
2. Plastic cup, not a lightweight disposable one
3. Tweezers (optional): Used if you see very small rocks in your fill valve

How to Flush your fill Valve

1. Turn your toilet water off. There should be a shutoff at the bottom of your toilet. Right turn to turn water off, left turn to turn water on.
2. Unscrew the white plastic float ball (#6)
3. There is a height adjustment screw on top of the fill valve. Unscrew it, which allows the arm to easily swing up.
4. Remove the black plastic pin that holds the arm to the fill valve. This pin is press fit, so no need to screw it off. It should come off easily.The pin is the pivot point for the arm. Remove the arm.
5. Unscrew the top of the fill valve, 1/4 turn counter-clockwise, and lift off.
6. You will see some black rubber valves inside. This is called the plunger repair kit (#1). Wash this clean. In my case there were 5-6 small rocks in there, which I removed. Remove the valve gasket and wash it. Clean out the fill valve body and remove any rocks in there as well.
7. Put a cup upside down on top of the opened fill valve assembly. When you turn the water on this will flush the dirt away from the fill valve. Without the valve cover water will shoot up and make a mess. Cover with a cup.
8. Turn on water so there is a fast flow of water through the fill valve. You will hear it cleaning out. Turn off the water. remove the cup.
9. Reassemble the fill valve: Install the gasket, reinstall the rubber valve, reinstall the cover, reinstall the arm and float. Turn the water on. Adjust the screw on top to your fill level.
10. Flush to test

Note that you need not disconnect the water pipe underneath your toilet.

Cleaning out your toilet fill valve is very easy, requires few tools and you stay clean. Now back to regular life!

American Standard Fill valve for older toilet

2018 Sept 15 Toilet is not filling. I recleaned the rubber valves, which had some gunk. I had to readjust the water shutoff screw at the top of the float arm,