Anyone ever make a valvetrain geometry checking tool?
Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:39 pm
Here I was thinking again (bad sign)...
What if you took a piece of flat plate, very thin, almost like sheet, but thick enough to stay true, and not get bent...
Then cut a notch out round, and clearance so it would rest on top of the retainer, but not touch the lash cap or the rocker pad (or anything else) during travel...
Have an arm come out and around, with a point on the end, that would point close to the center of the top of the end-bolt of the rocker shaft.
All of this would be cut out of a flat piece, so it would stay in one plane...
That way, when you were at half-lift, it would point right to where you were in relation to the centerline of the shaft....
You would measure the difference between the top of the plate and the top of the lash cap, and then be that far down from center on the end-bolt. Hopefully this would be a small number, and you could hopefully pick a thickness for the plate stock that would match.
Accounting for differences in keeper/retainer depth and lashcap thickness, it would be impossible to have perfect, but hopefully close, and measurable...
you can always tell when you are in the center of a round object, the eye is accurate in this situation.
You could always chuck up the end bolt in the lathe and touch it near center real lightly so there was a nice center reference mark.
It would be cool to maybe make it magnetic, so it stuck to the top of the retainer. Anyone know if titanum is magnetic?
This would only work on one valve per head, like exhaust for #4 on one side and #1 on the other, but would tell the truth.
I'm just here, holding my mouth right, using a straightedge, comparing full lift and closed, holding my mouth a little different, using a mirror and/or a back-light, moving shims around, changing lash caps, sticking my tongue out a little, moving the adjustable pushrod a little more, and thinking there's GOT to be a better way...
What if you took a piece of flat plate, very thin, almost like sheet, but thick enough to stay true, and not get bent...
Then cut a notch out round, and clearance so it would rest on top of the retainer, but not touch the lash cap or the rocker pad (or anything else) during travel...
Have an arm come out and around, with a point on the end, that would point close to the center of the top of the end-bolt of the rocker shaft.
All of this would be cut out of a flat piece, so it would stay in one plane...
That way, when you were at half-lift, it would point right to where you were in relation to the centerline of the shaft....
You would measure the difference between the top of the plate and the top of the lash cap, and then be that far down from center on the end-bolt. Hopefully this would be a small number, and you could hopefully pick a thickness for the plate stock that would match.
Accounting for differences in keeper/retainer depth and lashcap thickness, it would be impossible to have perfect, but hopefully close, and measurable...
you can always tell when you are in the center of a round object, the eye is accurate in this situation.
You could always chuck up the end bolt in the lathe and touch it near center real lightly so there was a nice center reference mark.
It would be cool to maybe make it magnetic, so it stuck to the top of the retainer. Anyone know if titanum is magnetic?
This would only work on one valve per head, like exhaust for #4 on one side and #1 on the other, but would tell the truth.
I'm just here, holding my mouth right, using a straightedge, comparing full lift and closed, holding my mouth a little different, using a mirror and/or a back-light, moving shims around, changing lash caps, sticking my tongue out a little, moving the adjustable pushrod a little more, and thinking there's GOT to be a better way...
