removing engine valves

Not sure if this warrants a new thread, but here goes...

Got a valve spring compressor (cheap garbage) now. I'm possibly being thick, but how do the damned valves come apart? How much am I supposed to have to compress the spring?

Haynes is fantastically vague, and I've never done this before...

Read elsewhere on the internet about clonking them with a socket and a bloody big hammer - how does that help - presumably it would fly all over the damned garden and bend the valve....

Reply to
Tim Hobbs
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Compress the valve spring with the forked end of the compressor and the solid end on the valve head. If it will not compress without busting the compressor, give the forked end and the spring (but not the end of the valve) a gentle tap with a hammer while pressure is on the compressor to unstick the collets, as they are a taper fit into the washer on top of the valve spring and may be wedged too firmly for the (cheap) compressor to free them. A socket is a convenient way to do this. The spring probably needs to compress about six millimetres or so. The split collets will then be loose and can be removed with long nose pliers if they do not fall out (depends which way up you have everything). Try not to lose them - they are small and disappear easily, and while they can be replaced, it is a bit of bother you don't need. Hope this helps, JD

Reply to
JD

When I did another car of mine, I put the flat jaw of the spring compressor on the piston-side of the valve and the collar jaw of the compressor on the top of the spring and cap, then squeezed. This compressed the spring by a centimetre or so, allowing me to prod at the small semi-circular wedges that fit into a groove around the top of the valve until the wedges fell out into the muck on the garage floor. At that point, when releasing the spring compressor the cap could be removed, the spring taken off and the valve pushed out.

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

Don't forget to remove the valve stem seals and fit new ones - AFTER you have ground the valve seats in.

Alex

Reply to
Alex

And when replacing them make sure they remain seated properly as you slowly release the valve compressor, if not they can take flight. On another engine I once watched as one collet bounced off the garage wall and dropped right down the pushrod holes in the block! Couldn't do it again if you tried.

Reply to
Bob Hobden

It's posts like this that make me thankful that many years ago I invested in a nice valve spring compressor with a built in slide hammer just above the collet pusher - cost me around UK150 in the '70s but money well spent, I never need to use force, and the collet pusher lets me safely get the split collets out from either side. I hardly ever use it these days but would never part with it 'cept from my cold dead fingers :)

A gentle tap of the valve top with a 1/2" socket astride the valve stem will help you though ... takes very little force to break the tapered collet's grip. Too much of a hit & the valve spring will tighten it up again on the rebound.

Karen

Karen

Reply to
Karen Gallagher

A really good smack with a 5/8" spark plug socket and the collets jump out inside the socket - super easy removal. (not that I'd reccommend that approach any more than I'd reccommend using a 1/2" drive impact wrench for undoing head studs). ;-)

Reply to
EMB

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