The handle on my toilet went loose and there was no movement on the blade.  This was a scary moment as this was just after making a deposit….

I pulled the handle out and saw that the finger on the rod that the handle pushes onto had broken off.  There was no chance of repairing this so  bodge was in order.

I went to the local hardware store and bought a length of chromed steel tubing that I think was designed for wardrobe rails.  I also bought some dowel that slotted into it.

I pushed the tube over the rod and drilled a hole through both the rod and the tube and inserted a small bolt all the way through.  I cut some dowel to fit down the middle.  The tube then came about 6 inches above the point where the handle should have been and the dowel made it solid enough so that I could attach my mole grips to it.

I thus had a usable toilet again…  With the panic over I then did some googling to find a replacement rod.  When it arrived I procrastinated massively because removing the toilet was a huge job along with lots of plumbing work.   Here is the item in question.

We today I finally got round to doing it.

While I was doing this job I decided to install a cut off valve in the pipe so that future jobs in this area of the plumbing would be much easier and quicker.

The job went really quickly and easily and I had the toilet out in 10 minutes,  the new rod fitted in a few minutes more and it was back in 5 minutes after that.   In total the job took half an hour.

To replace the rod all you need to do is undo the screw on the cover at the base of the rod.  You can then take the spring off and pull the metal hook out.   The rod just drops out and the new one goes back in.  Replace the rod and spring and reattach the screw.