Date:         Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:15:41 -0700
Reply-To:     neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         neil N <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Valve adjustment suggestions and a question
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi all.

Just some notes for any newbie at valve adjusting. This is for air
cooled 2 litre.

Use a 6 point socket to loosen the adjuster nuts. If they're on too
tight, a combo wrench in a newbies hand, can mess up the nut. Not
mention your knucles. (no I didn't!)

Bens site suggests making a mark 180 degrees from timing mark on
pulley for reference to #4 and #2 cylinders. I did this by lining up
timing mark with left fan grille bolt, then used opposite bolt for 180
degree reference.

If you're trying to locate a noisy, (collapsed or soft) lifter, you
can run the engine without the valve cover(s) on. I thought I'd have a
mess of oil coming out with valve cover off. None did during a short
run.

A question.

One lifter is consistently noisy at start up. Play felt "soft" not
solid like all the others. I found that its' adjuster screw had to be
turned WAY in to take out play. I could see this was wrong. Even then
it was hard to judge if play was solid. This was with engine cold.

To get a more accurate adjustment, I adjusted all except the soft
lifter, (engine cold) put noisy lifter back to it's original setting,
then started engine and waited for lifter to quiet down. I figured it
was properly (or as good as it gets) filled with oil at that point.
After that, when pulling the rocker back to check play, it felt more
"solid". I felt that this way I could adjust it more accurately.

Was this the wrong way to do it?

I understand the right way involves replacing the lifter! --- :)


Cheers,

Neil.

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia -
"Jaco"  (Bustorius)

http://web.mac.com/tubaneil

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