Help- Removing Rocker Arms
 

I have torn down several older engines for parts over the past year. I often find the rocker shaft nuts to be over-tightened and I end up stripping the heads on the nuts when I try to loosen them. I use the correct size allen wrench but the nuts are often rusty and strip easily.

Is there some way to prep the nuts and shafts (heat/penetrant) to make them easier to loosen and remove?

Kroil works the best of the ones that I have tried. www.kanolabs.com.

At the sake of making a dumb reply I will proceed anyhow. There are two sizes of allens the large nut and the small bolt. Only use the large nut for holding. Loosen using the smaller bolt. The allen is also formed deeper on the small bolt. This counter intuitive to me on my first shot at taking out the rocker. Seems like you should use the largest option but in this case you should only turn the smaller bolt.

I always work the small nut and it strips about 25% of the time on early engines.

I am ready to hear how bad this technique might be, but I couldn't get an 8mm allen into cyl 4 rocker shaft because the chain housing was in the way, so I used an impact wrench with a 5mm allen head and two long extensions that I carefully fed through the camshaft housing. Just a few bursts and the bolt cam right out. I didn't have anything counter holding the 8mm nut.

Ok let me know if this was a bad idea, but it worked and the hardware came out without any damage.

i tried to kill a nut with a small can of WD-40 once.

Kroil looks interesting...

Hello all.

My take:

Use a NEW UNBRAKO or other really good Allen key.

Grind the end off regularly to give a new set of points on the hexagon.

Use Plus-gas .

I'd say I can get 23 out of 24 out no problems: the main issues seem to be previously damaged inhex from worn Allen keys.

Kind regards
David

Couldn't that stuff (dont know the name) that is used for giving extra grip to philips screwdrivers be used with allen keys?

I soaked all of mine in PB Blaster for two days and used a new allen wrench and some muscle. Good luck.

Alex

Simple, but make sure the 5mm allen goes deep into the bolt. A lot of times the hex heads are filled with crap and it prevents you from getting a good bite on the bolt. Use PB or Kroil without a doubt.

Best,