Over-Torqued Rocker Adjusters
 

The shop that is helping with building up my race engine told me yesterday that almost all of the lock-nuts on the valve adjusters were over-torqued, which damaged the threads. As a result it's almost impossible to back out the adjuster screws (which are going in the junk heap after they come out). He said basically the threads have been changed, so even using a torch ("The blue wrench" as he calls it) won't help.

Before I go in and bugger things up (thus insuring that I need new rockers), I figured I'd ask and see if anyone has run into this problem and knows any tricks.

- One idea that I've been toying with is to grind off the exposed threads on the screw, and then try to back them out.

- Idea two, cut off the exposed threaded portion of the screw/bolt/stud thing (where the arrow is pointing). Then cut a slot for a screw driver (without cutting the rocker body) and screw it out.

- Idea three: Cut off the other end (the valve side) of the adjuster, and back the threaded portion out the other direction.

- Idea four: ???

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1148649513.jpg

John, I think two or 3 would be fine. The "damaged" portion should be pretty limited considering you rarely change the position of the locker nut by more than a mm or two...

So just grind off two or three threads closest to the body?

I ran into this problem a couple of months ago. You can thank Ted Robinson at German Precision for this information.

You can "unscrew" the adjusters right out. The cap is an interference fit on the shaft and will just pop off as you unscrew the adjuster. In fact you can reuse them (if you are a cheap ba$$tard like me) by just screwing them into the rocker arms and pushing the caps back on.

-Andy

adjusters
 

Here is a simple way to do that, the threads that are closest to the swivel are usually fine, take the jam nut off back the adjuster till the swivel bottoms out on the rocker then use a small pair of vise grips grab the adjuster (put the rocker in a vise with soft jaws) and back it up til the swivel pops off, then it will come out and not hurt the threads in the rocker, and with a new adjuster it should be fine if not chase the threads in the rocker.

Mike Bruns JBRacing.com

That sounds good. I'll let you know my progress when I have a few minutes to try it out.

Thanks Mike! SmileWavy That did the trick. Time to pop off the rest and move on to the next step.