1938 Series 40 rocker arm assembly .. disassembly

[-Rich]

I'm in the process of disassembling the rocker arm assembly on my 38-41, to check for wear, see if I need to replace any parts, etc. But I've run into a couple things I'm not sure about..

First, I was able to remove the first 3 Support Brackets quite easily - they just slid right off, as did the rocker arms are springs. But the 4th bracket seems to be stuck pretty tight. Any suggestions for how to remove it (and any others that might be stuck too)? I don't want to damage anything, or risk scoring the Shaft by twisting it back and forth to see if I can eventually "walk" the bracket off the shaft.

Second, the Shaft itself seems to have wear patterns, where it's highly polished in some areas, and rougher in others (like where the springs were). Once I remove everything and get down to just the bare shaft, what should I do? Just clean it up with wire wool and kerosene, or what? I'm still learning my away around these engines, so figured I'd ask before I make a terrible mistake. :-)

[Guest ZondaC12]

Looks a lot like mine did when I took it apart! I feel like I did indeed just "walk" the tough ones off the shaft. Young a dumb...16 years old only a few years ago!! But nothing got damaged...I suppose I lucked out. I don't think any were extremely bound up. I know they were light, probably aluminum or magnesium? Someone could confirm possibly. I think NOW I'd just take a propane torch and gently heat them to see if they expand and loosen up. I had the task of cleaning out plenty of sludge from the bore inside the shaft. I'm sure I cleaned the entire shaft in my parts washer, the shiny parts look nice from the picture anyway, and as long as all the rockers moved freely and none fit extremely loosely, then I would say nothing needs to be done to it. Just ensure all of the oil passages are free, put it together with some assembly lube or just coat everything in oil and re-assemble.

[-Rich]

Zonda - I've followed your posts with great interest. While I'm [mumble] years older than you, you've actually taught me a few things. Kinda cool! (and my dad bought my 38-41 back in 1973 - it came to me when he passed away in '07)

I hit all the brackets with some PB Blaster, and will see if that buys me any movement. I'd rather not use a torch unless all else fails - just because with my luck, the results would be less-than-desired. I'm told that a 50/50 mix of acetone and ATF works wonders, so that might be my next step.

How'd you make sure you had all the sludge out of the inside bore, and the oil holes on the brackets/rockers?

[Guest ZondaC12]

Cool story, really the same situation and about the same period of time, just shifted!

With ya 100% on the torch, good idea to avoid it if you can. I loooove PB blaster, the stuff is definitely what everyone says it is.

As far as the rocker shaft, I actually drilled a small hole in each cap in the end of the shaft and yanked them out and then stuck a pipe-cleaner through the whole thing and pushed it all out. As well as for each hole, then just flushed it with the parts washer/you could use carb cleaner or whatever you prefer, kerosene as you mentioned would obviously be fine, just a steel shaft after all.

Now I was able to go to the local machine shop and he provided me with two new caps...they resemble "freeze plugs" core plugs for an engine block, a tiiiny bit thicker I suppose. Maybe not really, could look that way because theyre smaller, but not important. They can just be lightly tapped in with a hammer and they stay with friction. Perhaps check somewhere and see if you can get them first. If there was absolutely no way I could have gotten them I would have just soaked the thing in a solvent long enough to flush everything out, worst case. I didn't expect to find them, they seemed odd but then again that shop had em and acted like it was entirely typical, so maybe that's a good sign.

[michaelod]

Not sure if this will help, but I have done a LOT of antique furniture restoration over the years and a tool that I use frequently is a medical syringe complete with needles used for giving injections. These can be purchased from some woodworking supply companies and should allow you to inject cleaning solvent into very small oil passages and perhaps eliminate the need to drill out the ends of the shaft and replace with new caps.

Just a thought anyway.