Lifters revisited...

[my4dv8]

Shame you are pulling th car down , now summer cruising is here. But if you need a left and right lifter holder I can loan you a pair.

[Frank Miller]

I did this on mine after the engine was partially assembled. I had my dad hold the vacuum hose while I drilled. Covered everything else up and used a magnet also. A wooden dowel the same size as the lifter inserted into the bore would keep chips from falling down when the hole is poked through.

[Bassman/NZ]

Originally Posted by my4dv8

Shame you are pulling th car down , now summer cruising is here. But if you need a left and right lifter holder I can loan you a pair.

Cheers mate.
Interesting replies here. I had contemplated drilling the bores without disassembly, and thought it would be a no-no, but obviously it has been done, albeit extremely carefully. I guess we're so used to doing everything perfectly these days that the era of the shadetree mechanic is disappearing. I can remember doing a hone, rings and bearings in a car without taking the engine out back in the 70s.
Ol Ron... not looking at changing the cam, just want the adjustables so I can set the lash easily. The engine is a stock displacement C59A, twin carbs and headers and maybe milled heads, so I dont think a cam will be of a lot of benefit. I'm just a cruiser, not a racer.

[Ol' Ron]

Had a 60 Chrysler that spun a rod bearlin. The local shop came out and turned down the crank in the car. Flushed the engine out with kerosene, put it back to gether and drove it for several years befor i sold it and it was still running.

[Tim Ayers]

Couldn't you also have some hold a shop vac in the valley while you are drilling? I was also thinking of having someone hold one of the magentic part picker uppers next to the drill bit.

Is cast iron magnetic?

[36tbird]

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I thought that my message would surely be like a grenade with a faulty pin. Luckily, Lt. Lancanster came in and threw his helmet and body over it to negate the blast.

[flatjack9]

Cast iron is magnetic.

[Joe AZ]

Originally Posted by Andy

I had to remove the cam gear and turn the cam so the lifters were raised. The sheet metal wrenches are worthless. I made a tool frm music wire to hold the lifters from turning. It was a V shape with the ends bent down to engage the lifter holes.

Andy,
Could you possibly provide a picture of the tool you fabricated?
Joe

[Andy]

The actual tool is hid somewhere. I made a replica out of some soft wire to illustrate the shape. The tangs just go down in the holes in the top of the lifters.

[Bruce Lancaster]

Reminds me of my first valve job on a '52 engine in my '48...$15 worth of PRIMITIVE seat tools from JC Whitney, the little traditional cup and Clover, a manual on how to fix your car written in 1916! Not only couldn't I afford modern tech, I did not know it existed!
I could carry my complete set of tools in one hand, and I think a KD valve bar was the only specialized tool in the lot.
My rented garage (I had a garage only because I wasn't allowed to have a car at the college) had no lights or electricity...again, it didn't matter much because any tool with an electrical plug would have been beyond my funds.

[Ol' Ron]

Bruce, when I look back I wonder how we did what we did. The things available to us now is beyond our wildest dreams back then. The only thing missing is experience, Us ols guys a leaving fast.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Andy

The actual tool is hid somewhere. I made a replica out of some soft wire to illustrate the shape. The tangs just go down in the holes in the top of the lifters.

Go to any Motorola mobile 2 way radio shop and ask them for a mobile antenna wrench....Every mobile VHF antenna they install comes with one and they look exactly like your picture..They are made of alloy wire and are plenty strong.

[Cecil/WV]

[QUOTE=Bruce Lancaster;522651]"OK, got my flak vest on and I'm hunkered down. Blast away."

Heh heh heh! Remember the old days??? When engines got repaired, not totally torn down and scrubbed and fully re-machined??
Valve job, anyone, or even a ring and valve job done with engine in car?? On Chevys, which had chronic rod problems, it was routine to turn a crank throw IN THE CAR* while replacing the rod that had just beaten everything to death.
Metal shavings, Clover coarse and fine emery, ring honing, blood, EVERYWHERE.
Cleanup...shop rag, mebbe a paint brush dipped in gasoline...
The whole damn national supply of cars worked this way. For a long time.
Again, less than optimum, and FAR less careful than an experienced enthusiast would do verboten things like this.


"When I was working in a machine shop in 1969, the local Dodge dealer had a new dodge V8 with a scored cylinder that was still under warranty and they had me come to their shop and hone one cylinder to the first oversize and they put one oversize piston in that poor guys new Dodge."

[Wily Kyote]

My dad told me of the piano wire trick. He said he made up sixteen of the tools and just left them installed for future adjustments. At 2,000 rpm, he said, that flatty keyed up a rendition of "Under the Double Eagle" that would have made Van Cliburn envious.