adjusting valves

rer_239

rer_239

Senior Member
finally got the valves and springs in. now the adjustment. following Andrews' book. i got the valves in proper position, but the adjustable tappet wasn't out far enough to put a wrench on, so i could turn the adjusting screw. what am i doing wrong?
 
Measure the gap and you will need to turn the engine until the nut is above the boss. Adjust and return to check. you may have to do this a few times at each tappet to get things right. when you are done you will wonder why you didn't just do things the factory way.
 
Keep in mind that the sequence is for measuring the clearance only. You won't be able to make the adjustments when it's positioned for measuring. You're measuring when the lifter is all the way down on the lowest point on the heel of the cam lobe. If you find that you have to adjust the clearance, you'll have to spin the engine around until the lifter rises enough to get the wrenches on the adjusting nut and lifter body. Then you have to reset the valve back down to remeasure the clearance. It will be hit and miss, and will take several repetitions until you get the clearance to spec.
 
Now you know why I set clearances before I install the valves, I can measure, lift the tappets with needle-nose pliers, make adjustments, then double-check after springs are installed.
 
File/grind proper fitting wrenches, making thinner then it will work!
 

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If your working on a emgine that's out of the car, I'd remove the cam gear and replace the cam gear nut. Now you can turn the cam and make your valve adjustments without turning over the whole engine, just turning the cam with the timing gear nut. A hell of a lot easier.
 
When I assemble an engine, the camshaft goes in first, then the valves. They are adjusted before anything else goes in. As for measuring and adjusting, I use the "Rule of 9" described in a website mentioned above.
On the rare occassions I adjust the clearances on an assembled motor, there is a bit of "back and forth" but it doesn't take long. You don't even need the head off to see which valves are open so you can use the "9" rule but that darned steerring column is a PITA.
 
Bruce of MN said:
I have picked up thin adjusting wrenches at flea markets after grinding my own.
Click to expand...

About 6 years back I scrapped 6 thin wrenches used just for this purpose.

Thought I was all done working on things that needed them.

Last December I acquired an A....
Wishing I had kept all of the stuff I then scrapped
 
I am just in the process of assembling my first flathead. I also chose to install the cam and valve train before anything else. I also chose to adjust the lifters on the bench rather than in the block. It seemed to work well but I would do it differently next time. This time, I installed the valve/guide onto the lifter (lifter on the heal of the cam), then took a gap reading with feeler gauges to determine what I had for gap, then remover the valve/guide, pulled the lifter, measured the hight of the lifter with digital callipers, adjusted the lifetree the required amount, again measured with digital callipers, reinstalled and rechecked with feeler gauge. Next time I'm going to make a fixture that holds the lifter and has a pin that goes through the lifter to keep it from turning, set a dial indicator on the top of the lifter, set to zero and adjust until the indicator reads the amount of adjustment required. Piece of cake and more accurate than fiddling with the callipers as I can adjust with the indicator in place instead of adjust, measure, adjust measure adjust measure like the caliber.
 
believe it or not I have a set of Craftsman Tappet wrenches with the holder. Don't know how old, but they have some age to them. There not chrome plated, just plain steel.
 
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