Tappet Trouble

Ongoing battle with the Guzzi's tappets.

The L/H exh tappet was noisy and having worked out I'd not done them for
over a year thought it might be a good idea.

The Guzzi tappets are simple screw and locknut and all were within
tolerance except the L/H exh which felt very 'gritty' when I was winding
it out. Removing it I found a few turns of the thread damaged as well as
the nut.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered the M8 1.0 threaded locknut was
over £5 from Guzzi and the tappet adjuster itself was just shy of £10.
Fortunately the fine threaded nut was only 20p from Namricks round the
corner (it's a 13mm spanner rather than 11mm as was but the early models
had 13mm so isn't a problem). I still had to buy a replacement adjuster.

Problem is it goes out of adjustment very quickly (2 miles) and the
threads in the rocker itself feel sloppy.

Getting a replacement rocker is going to be tricky (even secondhand,
unless JB has one?) and Friday is the only day I can work on it and I'm
on the 06.25 ferry Saturday.

I'm thinking of Loctite - what say the panel?

 

Valve seats?

 

If you're eventually going to get a new rocker, use Loc-Tite's "Stud-loc"
and it'll never move again. You WILL have to buy a new rocker and adjuster
though or hit the parts with a gas axe to break the bond.

Nothing ELSE but Stud-loc will go even halfway to seeing it work for a
decent time period.

Thread-loc CERTAINLY won't, nor will Loc-tite 240 or 242. IIRC the number is
270 (ish) for Stud-loc


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

I'm unhappy to do such a bodge on stressed engine internals and the price
of a fine pitch tap probably won't be too different to a new rocker.

18 ft/lb is pretty much the standard torque for an M8 nut.

 

Is there room to put a second nut on, to act as a locknut?

 

<south pacific mode>
Tappet, tappet, tappet, tappet torque
Torque about things you can't undo
<\spm>

 

I've got one. Email with a postal addy and I'll get it down to the post
office today.
jmbyrne_AT_greenyonder.co.uk (changing the colour to blue obviously)

JB

 

I read your posts and sometimes have to really wonder what's occurring
inside your head.

 

*You* wonder?

Try being on this side of it.

 

It might well be worth having a chat with a local engineering firm, or maybe
a decent local bike-shop, about helicoiling.

Used it myself, in fact, I bought a kit not too far back as it really does
work. Helicoils are not happy about being unscrewed and screwed up again to
many times though, but for tappet adjusters I'd have thought it just the
jobby as you never really actually back the thread right out each time you
adjust.

JMH2PW.
--
Greybeard

FLHTCUI UK-07 Mk II
Trumpet Trophy 1200 new one coming soon!
Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

I thought the issue was time, as in you not having enough to get your
hands on a new rocker before your Chimay trip, but I see elsewhere
in this thread someone has popped up with a spare rocker arm just in
the nick of time so it appears you are all sorted out.

I would also simply replace the rocker arm... unfortunately for me,
when the oil line to my ZG's cams got blocked, all the rockers (x8)
plus the cams got wiped out:

Part Number: 12016-1126
Description: ARM-ROCKER
Source: KAWASAKI
Price: $47.00

Luckily a fine fellow on the Concours forum had a spare set of cams
and rockers for beer money. There's a lot of nice folks out there.

The ones I was referring to are 7mm, so not too much different.

 

I know it'll be hardened steel _but_ if it's only case hardened and
the core is reasonable soft (1) then is there enough access to fit a
helicoil? A helicoil set will cost you next to **** all, it's an easy
job to do and it's not going to let go 50 miles from Chimay.

I can do you a talk through for fitting the insert over the phone in 5
minutes so if you want to go for it then give me a bell. Champ can
supply my number if you don't already have it.

(1) If the threads have fallen out rather than come out as small
chippings then it ain't hard.

 

Try cam followers at over £25 each (I think that's inc. VAT). I
suddenly made an engineering decision that slightly pitted followers
didn't matter that much.

 

And fitting a set of oversized followers is a **beeeetch**! If I _ever_ have
to do that reaming job again I quit. The sodding jig to hold the crankcase
aligned in the mill took me about 7 hours to build FFS.

JB

 

Yep, I've found that I spend more time making up fixtrues than
actually doing the bodge^h job itself.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Pip Luscher

Oh yes.

And *every time* I get tempted into a short cut, I regret it. Large.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Honda ST1100 wiv trailer Norton 850 Commando

 

Indeed. Usually at my own expense too.

JB

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, JB

*Always* at mine.

BTW, Monday might be tricky. I'll call you in the morning.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - "He's hopeless, but he's honest"

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Honda ST1100 wiv trailer Norton 850 Commando

 

^^^^^^^^
What a wonderful typo.

 

I've been whooshed here, I think.