<VV> Excessively tight rocker adjusting nuts

[John Sweet]

Chuck,
Which nuts are you using.  There is a problem with the ones that Clark's 
sell as they are not made right and they had a bad batch but never let 
anyone know.  I have the original ones in stock and they are the only ones I 
use now.
John Sweet
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "chuck mckinley" <cmckinley313 at verizon.net>
To: "VirtualVairs AA" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 4:52 PM
Subject: <VV> Excessively tight rocker adjusting nuts


> I've run into a problem that surely has bitten others of you, and I'm
> looking for advice. Specifically, I'm finding that some (not all) of my
> rocker arm adjusting nuts (the self-locking kind) are so dang tight on
> the rocker stud that when I back them off while adjusting the rockers,
> they take the rocker stud with them, i.e. the torque to turn the
> adjusting nut exceeds the torque with which the rocker stud is
> installed, so the stud turns rather than the nut. I can't figure out if
> this is a problem with damaged threads on the rocker stud, the nut, or
> both. All the nuts were new about 5-6 years ago when I did an engine
> rebuild. I don't remember having this difficulty when I originally put
> the engine back together. Could it be a temperature thing? This morning
> when I pulled the rockers off (to replace a stripped stud!), it was
> about 30F in my garage so all the parts were chilly. I can't imagine
> that a few dozen degrees would make a big difference in how tightly a
> self-locking nut grabs the stud, but I could be wrong.
> I'm wondering if I could get away with using ordinary nuts on the
> rocker studs and double-nutting each stud with a jam nut to hold the
> rocker adjustment. I haven't seen any discussion about this, and I don't
> want to get into hot water if there's a big flaw in that idea.
> I see by the Clark's catalog tech tips that the adjusting nuts are
> supposed to have 5-10 foot-pounds torque to hold a setting. I'm guessing
> that my troublesome ones are requiring 35-45 foot-pounds to budge them
> at their tightest position on the rocker stud.
> Comments and suggestions would be most welcome, as always.
>
> Chuck McKinley
> '63 Monza 900 80hp 3-speed
>
>
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