valve guide removal and installation

1500 mg midget

I see in the shop manual it talks about using a special tool to remove and install a new valve guide.

Does anyone have another way to do it without this special tool?

Valve guides are pressed into the head. I personally leave that job up to a professional....too much can go wrong if they aren't in there straight.

Here's what dad did for air cooled vw's. Drill the guide almost all the way through from the port side, but leave about 1/2" for the end undrilled. Take a tap of suitible size and tap threads into the remaining bit of undrilled guide. next, take a long bolt ( I believe he used a GM starter bolt) and insert it from the drilled end and thread it into the guide. Pound on the hex end of the bolt and drive the guide out. To install new ones, he would put the guides in the freezer overnight and heat the head. IIRC, VW guides had a small shoulder around the outside on the valve cover side. He'd use a socket or piece of tubing ( I don't remeber what) as a tool and tap on that to drive the guides home. He may have had a special guide instalation tool, but I don't know. I don't rememeber being yelled at for using it for something else, so I would have to say he didn't have one. Perosnally, I'd have to say bring it to a machine shop and have them dothe head. I also wouldn't recommend putting a fresh head over old rings. At least put a new set of rings in the motor.

Have a machine shop replace the guides. It won't cost a lot and there are just too many problems with trying to do it yourself.

They can also regrind your valves and seats to match. For not a whole lot more. It gets expensive if you buy new valves and springs. Guides are cheap and easy to do. A press helps. There is also an installed height you need to know about. I think it was 3/4" for a 1500.

m

PS: Are you any where near the Northwest Organization of Spridgeteer Handymen In Transit?

Most guides are knocked out rather than pressed out, you need a guide drift for this, Goodson tools sells them in different sizes, I always replace with bronze and they are installed with guide drift and tapping them vai a hammer. On some egnein i find it necessary to press guises out, a MGB, but not a 1500 or A series engine, some have guide drift that work with air hammers to do this. Here's the deal though after the new guides are installed they have to sized for the valve, which means you need reamers and flex hones to do that job properly.

I think people who have never used a press look at it as do-it-all. Pressing guides out can actually be very scary/risky, and even with some heads cause them to crack, this is very true with MGB heads with stock cast iron guides, I do press them out, but only after they are initially moved a bit with guide drift by the hammer first, it's that intial pop that breaks the guide loose that can be the head cracker. That why you won't see most machine shop use a press for this job, most shops opt for the air hammer method for guides.