Gals or guys, please add your tips to this thread that we senior women might be able to do for ourselves with basic tools. OK, I have been fussing about my tub/shower not draining right for months. A plumber tossed out an estimate of $500 because he felt the entire drain should be replaced. It is 47 years old. This morning I took it apart and pulled the entire shebang out and it all made sense. The weight of the old brass stopper and 47 years of flicking had worn the cam down. A simple replacement lever assembly was all that was needed. I found it at the hardware store for $10. Tools required: Pliers, screwdriver, and a small adjustable wrench. Here is the repaired unit before installation. It drains fast and furious.
I still can't figure out how to get the darn thing out. It goes up and down just so far. I would be fine to just getting a rubber plug. Readers Digest put out a fabulous do it yourself book maybe 50 years ago. I have fixed a lot of things myself with it. Prices for professionals is nuts and it is mostly to pay their insurance and overhead, not what they do for us.
Unscrew the two big screws on the plate and then just pull it out. I had to do some wiggling while pulling up. If you have a lot of gunk on it, that may be holding the stopper cylinder from coming out and may require some necessary roughness. I thought about pouring hot water in, but it finally came out.
Ours is usually full of hair when we clean it out. Clean it about once a month it gets easier once you get the hang of it.
I'm putting up with a bathroom sink where the mechanism to open and close the drain is locked up. The little rod that goes into the drain pipe from the back cannot be removed (by me anyway). Too much calcium in our water? Right now I have a plastic stopper in the drain. This is at the bottom of a long to do list.
If you only shower and don't fill the tub, you don't need the stopper at all. I removed mine. The drain did drain slowly though when I first bought the house but liquid plumber fixed that. I believe the hair of the previous owner, a woman, had gotten caught up in there.