Rocker Arm Repair

When your rockers go from clickety click to clack clack it is time to pull that valve cover and take a look. Much of the time the problem is quite obvious. One common problem is that an adjuster has come loose.

This could be from not getting it locked down well when you adjusted the valves last or it could be a stripped lock nut. Another not so obvious problem is a broken spring shim between the rocker spacers.
This allows the rocker to bang back and forth on the shaft. If you look closely you can see the extra gap and you can move the rocker when in the TDC position.
To fix this you will need to unbolt the rocker shaft from the head and then remove the clip from one end.
Now you can slide the rockers and shims off the shaft. Pay close attention to how they are all arranged. While you have the shaft apart it is a good opportunity to rotate the shaft 180 degrees so that the rockers are now running on what was the back side of the shaft.
This surface should still be like new. Another problem that we are seeing more of now that the cars are so much older is broken pushrods due to metal fatigue.
When they are broken in two it is quite obvious but occasionally they will mushroom and this takes a closer look. Of course this can be fixed by merely replacing the pushrod and readjusting the valves. Last but not least you could have a broken valve spring. Again this is usually very obvious but not an easy fix. Unless you have are familiar with head and valve work this one you may need to take to the shop. This whole operation can be seen on Bug Me Video Volume 3.

Rick Higgins and Crew
Bug Me Video, Inc.

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