elbow fitting on draft tower

so i got this draft tower off craigslist and it looks like it has been sitting around for a while and got pretty dirty. so i decided to take it apart and clean it all up. The elbow that goes into the shank (i think thats what the part is called) has a liquid line permanantly attached to it and it is filthy so i was just going to take it off and replace the elbow and the tubing my only problem is i dont know how to take the elbow out of the shank... can anyone help with this? the ellbow going into the shank has some sort of small grey plastic thing around it, looks kind of like a sleeve with a lip on the outside, do i just rip it out? it doesnt seem to loosen if i try and unscrew it.. any help would be much appreciated

There is usually a thin nut on the inside, most I have seen are brass. It unscrews, allowing the shank to be pushed through the hole in the tower.

There is also a chrome "nut" on the outside that the faucet screws into.

Cut that old line off, you are going to want to replace it, anyway.

ETA: Some pics would help.

Years ago they soldered and sleeved the barb ends onto the shanks, read about it somewhere ended up replacing the shanks being to hard to clean.........pic would be a great help......my.02

so this is the tower, i had already taken the spout out

these are the parts that are on the outside of the tower, there is also the "nut" that is on the inside that holds these parts and the shank onto the tower but i didnt take a pic of that

this is the shank and elbow, i dont know if you can see it very well but there is a little ring on the end of the shank, its kind of like a snap ring or somehting similar maybe?

here is another pic of the shank and elbow, you can see where the elbow goes into the shank there is the little grey piece of plastic that i was talking about in the original post


so i the liquid line is permanently attached to the elbow, looking at these pics can you guys tell if i am able to take the elbow out of the shank and replace it with new elbow and tubeing? i can hold the elbow and spin the shank around freely so i would guess that its not soldered in there? The warden left the camera in her purse so if you need more pics or clearer pics let me know and i can post some when she gets home from work with the camera

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