Rocker Shaft Help

I pulled the rocker shaft this morning to replace the cracked pedestal and the hose clamp adjuster.

It was hell getting the pedestals off the shaft.

The shaft is pretty worn and scored, Im betting it wasnt getting adequate oil.

No one has the shaft in stock. Can I get away with cleaning it up with fine sandpaper? Im guessing I will not put 1000 miles on the car before it gets a complete teardown.

Check RockAuto, that’s where I got mine not too long ago. I wouldn’t rebuild with your current shaft if it’s scoured up.

Autozone, and Advanced carry them for $28.00 here in Ohio, I'm sure your local chain store has them, not a hard to get part.

Certainly wouldn't reuse the old one if it's worn at all, I'm sure the inside is filled with years of oil gunk build up.

No one here carries them. I disassembled my spare rocker shaft and it is in about the same condition. I had to use heat to break the pedestals free.

I cleaned up the original shaft, opened the top rocker oil hole one size, hit the inside of the shaft with carb cleaner and put it back together.

I threw away the nails in the ends of the shafts and used drift pins this time.

On to an initial valve adjustment.

What chain parts stores do you have around there?

Melling rocker arm shaft, part #MRS-652.

After a through cleaning and inspection, it looks like my valve train is wore out, either do to age or a lack of maintenance.

The shaft is scored and has grooves in it. The rockers and pedestals are wore where they contact the shaft, it looks like the pushrods on either side of the cracked pedestal are slightly bent. By slightly bent I mean that they look to be bowed. I didnt have anything to roll them on to check. The PO told me that one of the pedestal bolts had backed out and it took him a couple weeks to figure it out. Im guessing he over torqued the bolts, cracking the pedestal because they were a bear to remove.

So I have cleaned everything up so oil will flow through the rocker grooves and into both holes. Im putting it back together and adjusting the valves tomorrow and I will see how it runs.

Im not looking to spend any cash on the engine until I decide what Im going to do, rebuild the 200, upgrade to a 250 or a V8.

Summit sells a nice 240hp 302 complete with carb and ignition and a 2 year warranty for $2800. Thats a hard to beat price considering an aluminum head and intake for our sixes run 2k+.

Im not on a budget here, I can do whatever I want. I bought this car because it is rust free and mostly original and its a 67, my favorite year.. I also like the six, easy to work on and plenty of room under the hood. I will figure something out in the next couple weeks.

In the meantime I want to be able to take it for tacos.

Howdy Back Georgia and All:

Which ever way you go, 200 or 250, you will want a good set of adjustable rocker arms. Pushrods are specific to either 200 length or 250 length.

The additional height, weight and length of a 250 over a 200 makes for additional challenges for a slight gain. If, as you said, this car will be for your wife an taco runs I doubt that you'll notice any gain going to a 250 engine. This also goes for a 302 upgrade. That's my two cents, for what it's worth.

Keep it coming.

Adios, David

All weekend and Im no closer to fixing my valvetrain problems.

1. Ive owned this car 3 weeks.

2. I had to swap the chrome for the original valve cover to clear the accelerator pump on my 1101. I replaced the carb because the 1100 was in bad shape and it had a SCV while my dizzy was not a LOM.

3. When I took off the valve cover I saw a cracked pedestal and a hose clamp on one of the adjustable rockers.

4. I had a spare adjustable rocker setup, so I replaced the cracked pedestal and rocker that had the hose clamp on it.

5. I installed the rockers today and torqued them to 30 lbs.

6. As I was rotating the engine by hand to adjust the valves I heard a snap. The same pedestal cracked again.

The push rods all look good, the rockers look good. I didnt place tension on the push rods until I was ready to adjust that set of valves.

Im guessing i have a bent shaft.

If its not a bent shaft, any ideas?

This is a Frankenstein engine. 65 block, 69 head, wrong carb, wrong rockers, fuel line looks like a 5 year old bent it, vacuum line from dizzy about 4 foot of hose.

I don't think a bent shaft would break pedestals, maybe possible?

Kinda sounding like you've got the wrong length push rods in there, or solid lifters. Something's not happy in there.

Didn't you say some of the push rods are bent? In your rocker adjustment thread you said the lifters are not collapsing. For hydraulic lifters you tighten the rocker until the push rod has zero lash, just barely starting to compress the lifter. You then compress the lifter, and set lash to 0.065-0.200" measured between the valve stem tip and the rocker. The lifter should collapse about 1/4"-3/8" roughly, definitely a noticeable amount. I shoot for 0.13" lash.

I do exhaust open, intake close valve lash method.

I'd take a retrieval magnet and pull out a lifter to see if it's solid or hydraulic.