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I hope that the information passed on by Barry and Travel Happy (Keith) to Ellensj was helpful. I can add a little more now so perhaps in the future new owners have a better understanding. Perhaps the problem was that the Jubilee Clip needed tightening or one of the tails had ‘popped’ out past the pin due to water/frost.
The micro switch on my kitchen sink tap has been a little troublesome for a year or so and sometimes I had to coax it into action, it finally broke on our last trip a couple of weeks ago so that coaxed me into action to replace it. By the way to get at the micro switch the tap has to be turned fully on as far as it will go and then you can just pull the handle off. If you don’t do this you will probably break the microswitch – it’s a tip I read years ago ( and I remembered Barry).
In the SG and probably the SK (different tap), the hoses have to be removed from underneath because the hole in the sink is too small to pull through the tails with the pipes still attached – so its a fiddly job for us oldies once the back of the cupboard has been removed.
First remove the two wire connectors from the microswitch noting which way round for re-assembly.
Loosen the Jubilee Clip on the pipe (hopefully the screwhead is in a forward facing position from assembly) and slide it down the pipe to clear the tail then tighten it up a little to prevent it slipping too far down. —Repeat for the other clip/pipe.
Undo the plastic lock nut from under the tap base (mine was a firm finger tight – not much room for spanners) and wriggle the nut down over the tails to remove – the tails will swivel together to help. The tap can now be lifted off from the top.
I have attached a photo below so that folk can see the tails and also in the middle the rusty looking pin in the middle. It is this pin that holds the tails in place by fitting in a groove in the tails. The pin can be pushed right through and removed. The tails can now be removed as they will easily pull out. I cleaned my pin up before putting it all back together and sprayed it with PTFE.
There is an ‘O’ Ring on each tail and ideally this should be lubricated/wetted before re-assembly ( I used PTFE spray. Make sure that the tails are fully pushed into the base of the tap when reassembling and that the pin fits properly to hold them in place.
Re-assembly is reverse order – it pays to turn the tap away a little so that when you tighten the nut as far as possible from underneath you can hold the nut and pull the tap to the correct position to firmly tighten.