Toilet handle broken but no ring to attach to?

Purple Sheep

A guest decided to arm wrestle the toilet handle and won.

Looking inside the cistern it seems like it should be simple to fix: there's a hook dangling, it should attach to... something? Probably from that small round blue spot but there is nothing coming out of there and I can't reach inside.

I thought maybe I could lift the blue cap on the left and push things up from under, but the cap seems well attached and I'm reluctant to force it off when I don't know what I'm doing.

It seems like the ring should be more obvious but I felt everywhere around the cistern and can't find any broken part... What am I missing? Any idea for other places where I should poke?

mad m

The hook should be attached to the siphon flush. The black circular bit, try lift it up and reattach hook

colm_mcm

Make sense?

Purple Sheep

mad m wrote: »

The hook should be attached to the siphon flush. The black circular bit, try lift it up and reattach hook

Right, that's what I meant with the "small round blue spot" but actually looks black on the picture, sorry! I'll give it another shot in the morning but there is nothing sticking out and my fingers are too big to dig in. Maybe I can use the hook to fish it out...

Purple Sheep

colm_mcm, thanks, I'd love it if there was an obvious black bit to stick the down part of the hook into!!

mightyreds

Purple Sheep wrote: »

Right, that's what I meant with the "small round blue spot" but actually looks black on the picture, sorry! I'll give it another shot in the morning but there is nothing sticking out and my fingers are too big to dig in. Maybe I can use the hook to fish it out...

This happened me before I had to put a screw into the black bit and pull it up and then inside that black bit is a hole the ring goes into

colm_mcm

It doesn’t sound like it unhooked itself though. Surely a replacement syphon will be needed.

Purple Sheep

mightyreds wrote: »

This happened me before I had to put a screw into the black bit and pull it up and then inside that black bit is a hole the ring goes into

That sounds promising! I'll give that a shot in the morning as well & report back.

Purple Sheep

colm_mcm wrote: »

It doesn’t sound like it unhooked itself though. Surely a replacement syphon will be needed.

The bit that makes me hopeful is that I couldn't find any broken piece, but there sure was violence involved in the unhooking all right. Would someone who didn't know the name syphon 5 minutes ago have a fair chance at replacing one...? :pac:

colm_mcm

Does this scare you?

https://youtu.be/FIHATkwmvnw

I’d be inclined to get a plumber in unless you’re handy.

Purple Sheep

colm_mcm wrote: »

Does this scare you?

https://youtu.be/FIHATkwmvnw

I’d be inclined to get a plumber in unless you’re handy.

Yeah the sealant part would concern me all right... Thanks for the advice! Crossing fingers the screw trick will sort me out in the morning for now

Purple Sheep

There's nothing to hook into with the screw, the top is flat inside that little round space. I guess the ring top must have broken off and been flushed out. I'll give a ring to the plumber tomorrow.

mightyreds

Purple Sheep wrote: »

There's nothing to hook into with the screw, the top is flat inside that little round space. I guess the ring top must have broken off and been flushed out. I'll give a ring to the plumber tomorrow.

I didn't hook the screw in, I actually had to screw the screw down into the flat bit and pull it up, the hole is in the black thing, its a round bar with a hole near the top

Purple Sheep

mightyreds wrote: »

I didn't hook the screw in, I actually had to screw the screw down into the flat bit and pull it up, the hole is in the black thing, its a round bar with a hole near the top

Facepalm! I totally misunderstood what you meant, thank you for the explanation.

Purple Sheep

I'd already called the plumber so I thought there was no point in trying the last suggestion. He wasn't able to come though so I gave it another shot tonight.

Looks like mightyreds was right, the ring was pushed under. Unfortunately, I broke it while pulling the screw out. So now there is half a ring still stuck in there (further down than before too!) and the other half on my bathroom shelf. Ah well.

So that I learn something out of this at least (beside what a syphon is!), how does one turn off the water supply just for the toilet?? Videos online show nice valves but I just have a nut, shown in the picture... Seems more likely to result in water spilling everywhere than stopping anything? There's a similar nut at the bottom except caked in paint. (I used duct tape to keep the floating bar up this time.)