Rocker side play and valve adjustment

[Wobbly]

Hi folks ... long time lurker, just doing my valve adjustment on a 74 2.7 which I picked up recently. I've bought one of the Z blocks from PP to help with doing my valves using a dial gauge, but I'm having a bit of trouble with getting a consistent reading. One thing I noticed this evening is that the rockers have some side to side play, and this play tends to affect the valve gaps. For example when I pull the rocker away from the motor I get different readings on the dial gauge when I then also move it side to side. It varies by about 0.04mm.

So my question is whether this is expected/reasonable, and if so whether the adjustment I should shoot for is the maximum lateral/axial position when pulling the rocker out and the corresponding furthest in the opposite direction? Or does it mean I've got too much rocker axial play and need to replace bushings/shaft/etc? Or should I be keeping the rocker in one position laterally, and only moving the up/down movement in this lateral position?

The motor has under 100,000kms (60,000mi) on it but has been sitting for some time without a lot of use. The engine itself was running fine and seems fairly quiet (my first 911 though). The gaps I'm measuring so far are all a little on the loose side (around 0.14mm)...

Thx,
Neil.

[kodioneill]

I've tried that and you'll never get consistent results. I prefer the go-no go method described here always works the first time.

Pelican Technical Article: 911 Valve Adjustment - The Backside Method