Valve adjustment tips?, Do I need a trained monkey or what? Options

[mpoffers]

Got the car on jackstands, valve covers are off, I'm turning the engine and rocking the valves per instructions from a forum search. All is well.

Except I can't reach the valves. There's engine tin above, heat exchanger below, and suspension mount to the side. OK, I'm exagerating a little. I can reach the rockers, I can even get the feeler gage in and out. What I can't see how to do is get tools in there to do the adjustment. I might be able to get a wrench on the lock nut and get it loose, but I don't see how I could get it tight enough after I've made the adjustment. I definately don't see how I could hold the adjustment screw and tighten the nut simultaneously.

Am I missing something, or should I be recruiting the help of my 4-year-old-daughter? Her hands are pretty small.

Mike

[klink]

OK, I tried to do this the fast way and it didn't work worth a darn. If you go to the Pelican tech article you will be sure to be in the right place when your adjusting the valves. The big thing for me was to triple check the clearance after doing the adjustment. Problem is, when you tighten the jam nut it changes the clearance. I got to the point where I wouldn't move on until I was satisfied that the clearance was absolutely correct. The first time I did this I was amazed at how well it worked. Valve noise was pretty much zero. Before, I ended up with tight and loose valves. That's a bad thing. You have to watch the distributor rotor and mark the flywheel to do it right. Once you do this and be totally anal about the final clearance you got it and really it isn't that difficult. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the Pelican article because I was trying to correlate the crank to cam ratio and it just wasn't working. Fact is when I gave in and just went with it, it worked out fine. Take your time, mark your flywheel and you'll be good to go. Oh, and by the way it is really tight in there, so I would take the aforementioned advice on the tools. Good Luck!

[Cap'n Krusty]

OK, I tried to do this the fast way and it didn't work worth a darn. If you go to the Pelican tech article you will be sure to be in the right place when your adjusting the valves. The big thing for me was to triple check the clearance after doing the adjustment. Problem is, when you tighten the jam nut it changes the clearance. I got to the point where I wouldn't move on until I was satisfied that the clearance was absolutely correct. The first time I did this I was amazed at how well it worked. Valve noise was pretty much zero. Before, I ended up with tight and loose valves. That's a bad thing. You have to watch the distributor rotor and mark the flywheel to do it right. Once you do this and be totally anal about the final clearance you got it and really it isn't that difficult. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the Pelican article because I was trying to correlate the crank to cam ratio and it just wasn't working. Fact is when I gave in and just went with it, it worked out fine. Take your time, mark your flywheel and you'll be good to go. Oh, and by the way it is really tight in there, so I would take the aforementioned advice on the tools. Good Luck!

Sorry, Dude, but the problems you had are OPERATOR ERROR If you do it the way I've described in the classic thread, you DO NOT have to know what cylinder you're on. The distributor is so irrelevant, it can be lying on the bench. As for the screws moving when you tighten the nuts, you're supposed to tighten the jam nuts while the feeler gauge is in place and the screwdriver is still on the screw.

The Cap'n