Rocker Assembly - work in progress

[kodanja]

cha ching!

 

[tdskip]

cha ching?

or

CHA CHING?

or

<span style="font-size: 14pt">CHA CHING?</span>

 

[Brosky]

Well Dale, look at it this way. If you only clean up the crap and put it back together, it will be better than before, at the cost of some of your labor, parts cleaner and a valve cover gasket.

Try that and see how it is after cleaning the shaft out. Lube it well with oil and reassemble. It can't hurt and it will be running again.

 

[TR4nut]

Somebody please correct me here if I'm wrong, but isn't one of main difficulties of this kind of work the rebushing of the rocker arms if it is needed? I think they are similar to the TR3/4 trunnion bushings in that after you press them in you need to ream to fit, which is a pain.

Randy

 

[kodanja]

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Check this out' </span>

 

[Brosky]

Randy, you are correct, which is what drives the price.

I still didn't see how to get those end plugs in and out.

 

[TR6oldtimer]

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Check this out' </span>

OK, first thing I need to get is a lathe!

The rocker arm wear where the arm hits the valve stem is often over looked by the backyard mechanic. With labor prices as they are in my area, it is less expensive to buy new, the refurb. A great video.

 

[tdskip]

These guys are about 10 minutes from me - for what ever this is worth.

 

[Tinster]

Well Dale, look at it this way. If you only clean up the crap and put it back together, it will be better than before, at the cost of some of your labor, parts cleaner and a valve cover gasket.

Try that and see how it is after cleaning the shaft out. Lube it well with oil and reassemble. It can't hurt and it will be running again.

Paul, I've purchased a new shaft and it should arrive in 10 days or so.
My rocker arms look pretty good and have a fairly uniform I.D.
My existing shaft is smooth except at rocker No. 12. I believe No. 12
had a clog of some kind and did not permit proper lubrication.
I'll probably purchase a new RA for No. 12.

I'll clean everything up very well, install parts on the new shaft
and watch it closely.

Wow! Mr. Kopf- that video was amazing!! That is exactly how I took
my assembly apart!! except I made a parts board and took more photos.

Best regards

OH Paul- I looked into the shaft end plugs. From what I can tell, they
are expansion plugs and driven into place. It appears (on mine) they
must be drilled out. Part of my problem with RA No.12 might be the end
plug was driven in very deep.

dale (Tinster)

 

[Brosky]

Did you ever get those mystery plugs out? And......does your new shaft come with new plugs installed, or do you have to buy them separately?

 

[70herald]

Well Dale, look at it this way. If you only clean up the crap and put it back together, it will be better than before, at the cost of some of your labor, parts cleaner and a valve cover gasket.

Try that and see how it is after cleaning the shaft out. Lube it well with oil and reassemble. It can't hurt and it will be running again.

I replaced the shaft on the heralds engine and believe me the shaft looked much worse than what Dale has! The rockers all fit on with out any wiggle and the oil comes comes out the top hole just like it is supposed to. Perfect NO, but more than good enough.

 

[70herald]

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Check this out' </span>

OK, first thing I need to get is a lathe!

The rocker arm wear where the arm hits the valve stem is often over looked by the backyard mechanic. With labor prices as they are in my area, it is less expensive to buy new, the refurb. A great video.

Neat grinder for refacing the rocker arms. I did them by hand and it took quite allot of patience to get them all nice and straight. Still probably not nearly as good as what the proper tool can do.

 

[Tinster]

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Check this out' </span>

OK, first thing I need to get is a lathe!

The rocker arm wear where the arm hits the valve stem is often over looked by the backyard mechanic. With labor prices as they are in my area, it is less expensive to buy new, the refurb. A great video.

Randall: My wife about had a heart attack when I fired up the propane
torch on her glass stove top. Monsoon outside so no choice. Wow!! Under
five minutes and both stuck pedestals slid down the shaft. Thanks for the tip.

Mr. Kodanja: I rented the lathe for an hour and the rocker shaft cleaned up real nice.
Just for curiosity since I've a new shaft ordered. The most cutting into the shaft was
by the springs.

A very interesting project, I am having fun. There are tiny oil paths all in and
out of the assembly. cool! I noticed one odd thing. Every rocker arm except No 12
has a shallow oil path cut from the oil feed hole to the vertical notch cut into
the shaft. Could this account for the problem with No.12 or is there not supposed
to be an oil path for No. 12 ? Photo attached: Thanks all! Paul- I'll drill out
the end plugs when my new shaft arrives.

 

[Brosky]

But Dale, are you getting new plugs with the new shaft? Did they confirm that they were already in it, or did you order news ones to go with it?

 

[Tinster]

But Dale, are you getting new plugs with the new shaft? Did they confirm that they were already in it, or did you order news ones to go with it?

Yes, confirmed they come with: not sure if installed or not.
When I know the new shaft is OK, I'll profile grind the old shaft
to show the end plugs in cross section.

I've been thinking about something. Many parts on my car had been
replaced with Japanese car parts from the auto junkyard. Is it possible
my rocker arms are from a Japanese wrecked car? The arms have numbers
stamped BR N6, BR N4, etc. NOT in order and no BR N1 or BR N12,
several BR N8s and BR N5s. Are these the real deal Triumph rocker arms?

Thanks as always,

dale (Tinster)

edit-typo

 

[DrEntropy]

Those look to be decidedly Triumph rockers. Besides, can't imagine a Japanese rocker being proper shaft I.D. and lengths along with correct pushrod ball diameters.

With a new shaft you'll have another 50K miles to go before you revisit this issue, likely more.

 

[Brosky]

Dale,

Don't destroy the old shaft for the sake of a picture. Who knows what will be available in a few years.

 

[TR3driver]

Rocker Arm Specialist

19841 Hirsch Ct
Anderson, CA 96007-4910
(530) 378-1075


Anyone have a ballpark from them vs TRF for the rebuild?

I just called and spoke to Blaine at that number, he assured me that they are still in business. Unfortunately I didn't think to ask about pricing for a TR6, so someone else will have to do that.

It has been a few years back, but they charged me less than half what TRF wants today for a rebuilt TR2-4 shaft. And their rebuild clearly included a new shaft, rather than reconditioning the old one. It still looked perfect after maybe 30,000 miles (although I only slid one rocker aside to look at it, didn't bother disassembling).

 

[TR3driver]

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Check this out' </span>

I only watched a few seconds, but it's interesting that his device does not hold a constant radius on the tip. It's left to the skill of the machinist; which is certainly a valid technique with a good machinist. But I'm not that good with freehand work, can't even grind a decent drill bit.

 

[TR3driver]

From what I can tell, they
are expansion plugs and driven into place. It appears (on mine) they
must be drilled out.

Just a thought, Dale. I've not tried this on a TR6 rocker shaft, but the plugs that retain the shift detents in the gearbox top cover appear to be similar. I found that I could remove them easily using a bottoming tap of suitable diameter (so the tap would cut into the inside walls of the cup), a short spacer (or a stack of flat washers would do) and a nut. Load the nut & spacer onto the tap, then turn the tap into the cup until the cup turns, and turn the nut down to extract the cup.

They would have been reusable, but I elected to install threaded plugs instead.