Trip Lever Overflow Plate Tub Drain Repair

The trip lever mechanism in my tub corroded and stopped working so I spent entirely too long and too much filament iterating through designs as a replacement. I printed in PETG with enough wall perimeters to make the latch flex arms solid and it has held up for over a year now in my tub.

It is designed to replace overflow plates with holes that are 2" between center (seems to be most common). I haven't tested it on any tubs besides my own so hopefully the back part of the mechanism clears other tubs.

The lever needs support no matter which way you print it, so I printed on it's side for optimal strength and all of the lever that needs support ends up hidden behind the faceplate anyway. To assemble first clip the thin section at the end of the latch arms, this is in the model to make a complete bridge for printing, but must be clipped to allow the arms to flex. Then simply slide the arm through the faceplate and install the retaining clip. The clip will probably be pretty tight, and may take some fiddling to get fully in place, but that helps ensure the mechanism pivots properly. If needed you could probably sand it down a little to help it fit. Then I just used some stainless wire to connect it to the tub's existing drain plug chain and re-used the mounting screws from the old faceplate.

I also included a variant for the lever that looks like a lobster tail and another with just the mechanical part to merge with your own custom lever designs. The thin section is there as a guide for the direction and size of the lever.