Valve seals

[fabricgator]

Well I've got a leaky valve seal in no 1.Has anyone tried pulling the cams and replacing the valve seals without pulling the head?I thought I could pressurise the cylinder and change the seals like we do on cars.

Terry

Indian rope trick.....

Feed soft rope or shoelace into the sparkplug hole and then manually raise the piston to compress the rope against the valve. Do your thing, then you'll have to manually release the pressure to remove the rope.

Manual engine movement may be done by removing all sparks, 5th gear, move rear tire while on centerstand or push cycle forward or back as required.

I agree with remove the head and fix it all...... just wanted to impart the "trick" as it works well in a micro surgery situation.

Cheers! *(clink)*

[Ivan]

the only problem I can seeis that the valve springs are recessed in a bore and make it a real chore to compress the springs without a proper tool with the head off the engine. I doubt that a typical on the engine valve spring compressor would fit between the spring and bore. If you figure a way, I would be highly interested in your method.

[tw1980]

the only problem I can seeis that the valve springs are recessed in a bore and make it a real chore to compress the springs without a proper tool with the head off the engine. I doubt that a typical on the engine valve spring compressor would fit between the spring and bore. If you figure a way, I would be highly interested in your method.

Sorry Ivan I couldn't come up with a way to compress the valves springs with the head on.If I were a better machinist I may have been able to build a tool but I lack the skills required. Terry

[trbig]

I know this isn't going to be the best option for many due to them not having the extra parts, but my spring compressor uses one of the shim buckets. I drilled a hole in the center..( no easy feat. This is some GREAT steel)...





And then use a clamp on the bucket itself.





This way, there's no fishing around for the keepers, they are right there in the open. I have since removed the little piece of the C-clamp's foot...





...filed that threaded post to a point at the end and drilled a dimple into the shim bucket to keep that point from walking around as you compress it.

I don't think it would take much to come up with something that clamps to the frame above the head, and slides sideways along a rail, using part of an old C-clamp to screw/push down onto each of the valves using the rope trick to hold the valves in place.

That being said, if you have already taken the cams out and you're that far, it would probably be best to just pull the head, find out if you have any valves that are leaking by setting on it's side and pouring gas into the ports.. and doing a valve lap if neeeded at that point.

Just posting this to show there's more than one way to skin a Kat.. errr. .cat. lol.


Tod

[tw1980]

Yeah Todd I think you're right,it doesn't make much since to pull the cams and then not pull the head. Terry