Thanks to All

A cheaper way is the old cord trick. Mike.

I've got one somewhere - when I get round to finding it I'll probably bung it on Ebay as the chances of me getting another smoky Ford CVH are pretty slim - no offence to owners of such cars :o)

The tool is about 18 quid from Halfrauds. Take the rocker cover off, use the tool to compress the springs and extract the collets from the valve stems

**WITH THE AID OF A MAGNET** - I didn't :o( lost 2 of them down an oil drain hole and in the end had to remove the sump and get a new sump gasket fitted (a sod of a job on those engines, and the Ford dealer tried to charge me nearly 200 quid and sell me a new sump!). May be a good idea to fit new tappets at the same time - they're about 30 quid a set.

The message from "Carl Bowman" contains these words:

Nonsense - you'll have no trouble getting another smoky CVH, they're two-a-penny.

LOL! The chances of me not going out and buying one are much higher :o)

Hummmm that tools sounds handy, im very curious tho - how does it work?

Just rang Halfords - Apparently - they`ve never heard of a tool like that, but they think its a good idea, but a shame as no CVH`s are about now:(

Hummm i do sometimes wonder how they get jobs there:(

Ta MCN

----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Bowman" Newsgroups: uk.rec.cars.maintenance Sent: 15 June 2004 11:24 Subject: Re: Thanks to All

I did the same thing on a Mk3 Escort CVH. Amazing - the collet is almost exactly the same size as the oil drain hole but it still managed to drop down. A couple of minutes fishing with one of those telescopic magnets (the ones like a radio aerial) retrieved it. I may have just been lucky, but if anyone else does the same thing, it's *well* worth a try.

One thing which hasn't been explained yet - you need two things, the tool and locked valves. On early CVHs you can lock the valves against the pistons on the compression stroke, on later engines you need to put rope or similar down the spark plug hole on the compression stroke then turn towards TDC to lock the valves.

Biggles Remove packaging from e-mail address before replying otherwise it will bounce.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@aol.comma (Dave Baker) contains these words:

While I'd probably take 'em out if I dropped 'em down the holes, hasn't the oil pick-up got a strainer over the end of it?

The message from "Biggles" contains these words:

Or use a thing that screws into the sparkplug hole which you connect to a compressed air line - holds the valves shut nicely.

The part is on the manufacturer's website at:

Halfords.com seems to be down at the moment but I'm sure I've seen one in the Leeds branch recently, alternatively a search on Google returns a couple of online suppliers (never used either though): ?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NS-YF6238&Category_Code=001

Thats bollox- halfords sell the bloody SP tool to do CVH oil seals!!

Tim..

What I was referring to earlier. The old cord trick. Can be used on any engine. The way the spring retainers can jam on the collets, I don't think I'd be too happy to rely on air pressure alone to hold the valve. Presumably you still have to make sure the piston is at the top of it's stroke. While you're doing that you might just as well stuff some cord in the bore. Mike.

Was I just very lucky then?

I managed to change the cam, lifters and stem seals on a 1.6 CVH without anything like this.

I suppose the pistons may have been halfway up/down, because I never lost a valve downa guide.

Pete.

But how much sloshing around is the oil going to do at a few thousand rpm? It's quite likely to end up jammed in the crankshaft

-- Malc

The message from "Malc" contains these words:

With a bit of luck - none. It should be below the swing of the cranks and something small and dense like a collet should end up stuck in the sludge - always plenty of that in a CVH.

I once took apart a 1500 Allegro gearbox - the underslung one in the engine oil - and found a spanner in there as well as a number of broken bits of spring washer. They'd not been chewed up and dragged round.