Here is one way to remove a stubborn faucet with difficult access to the nuts underneath
This requires a moderate amount of skill. USE EXTREME CAUTION with the cutting tool to avoid injury.
There is a risk of damaging the sink with this method
Use at your own risk
The problem – A stubborn faucet and a deadline
I needed to replace a leaking faucet. I had previously replaced the cartridges but it seemed that it reached it’s end of life. Given the amount of time that it was in service, it didn’t owe me anything.
Usually, you simply disconnect the supply lines and unscrew the nuts holding the faucet to the sink. I have a couple of tools for this. Because of the depth of the sink I just could not get a good grip on the nuts. (Stop snickering)
I considered removing the sink itself but with the age of the counter and hardware decided that might be a bad idea.
After a lot of trying I re-thought the situation.
As you can see above, the sink was fairly deep which makes getting to the retaining nuts a bit more difficult. And yes, I know my housekeeping skills stink.
The solution – cut the sucker
I figured that I might be able to remove the faucet by cutting between the valve and the faucet on each side. The best tool available was my cutting tool with a metal cutting blade and some oil.
Cut one side.
The trick in cutting is to (1) not injure yourself and more importantly, don’t damage the sink. At least don’t horribly damage it. This was a stainless steel sink with is a bit more forgiving than a ceramic sink.
I used wd-40 as a cutting oil. That made a bit of a mess but it did keep the blade from overheating and dulling quickly.
I cut the stainless base first. Then I cut the bronze.
The mess you see is not damage to the sink but ‘bronze dust’ from cutting the faucet assembly. Once I got the right piece out I knew I was on the right track. The retaining nuts were nylon so I was able to remove them by drilling them from the top.
After cutting between the hot water and faucet, I was able to completely remove it.
Success
This picture was taken immediately after installing the new faucet. I didn’t completely clean the sink. You can still see the bronze dust.
Summary
A real plumber would probably scream and pull their hair out if they saw this. But it worked. I had tried to get at the nuts from underneath without success.
I was also able to cut the old faucet away without cutting into the sink. I can still count to ten on my fingers.