OK, I've done due diligence and adjusted the valves per 'Nathan Hall's instructions. All went well. Most of the exhaust valves were too tight... Question is about a metal tube at the midpoint of the rocker arm shaft assembly. Pictures to be included. The tube has a small hole on the inside of the curve at top, and is open ended at the bottom, downstream of the place where it's 'crimped' a little. Looks like I'm getting oil to everything, but clearly much more to the front half than the rear half of rockers. Even on the rear half there is oil weeping from the hole at the top of the rockers on the shaft. On the front half, oil is flowing at a steady, thin stream at all the rockers. What is the purpose of the tube at the center of the rocker shaft?
Most of those oil tubes are crimped to prevent full oil pressure from flooding thru the rocker arms & dripping past the valve stems thus causing the engine to burn oil & smoke. As long as you can see oil flowing through the weep hole on the top of each rocker arm .... you should be OK. If the oil flow is really different between the front & rear rocker shafts.....you need to take everything apart & run a bottle brush through the rocker arm shafts as they are probably gunked up.... but don't forget... the engine sits at an angle in the frame & the front of the motor is slightly higher than the rear of the motor so the front rockers are designed to get a little more oil as gravity naturally pulls the extra oil to the rear of the shaft.
Also make sure the bushings in the rockers are not wore to bad as there is a oil grove in the bushing
Thanks for the responses Guys. I'm not overly concerned with oiling, so mainly wanted to know the purpose of the tube. All the rockers are weeping at idle, and hot, so I think we're good to go. Bill
DZ, The bottom end of the tube in the picture is open ended. It flows freely at idle. That's why I was questioning it's purpose. It appears to me that if it were crimped somewhere that would increase oil flow to the rockers. Any suggestions around that?
Venturi effect Bilbo Yes you are right about the fact that a narrow passage will increase the pressure as long as if the oil flow pressure is constant wich it is`nt. I would leave it the way it is. Martinius.
Rocker Oiling It's to dump out excess oil . As Joe mentioned , too much oil up there will get sucked in past the loose & wobbly intake valve guides and cause serious blue exhaust smoking , not a good thing .
Thanks Nate. I've reassembled the valve cover, even before posting the question, as I figured all was well. Don't have any plans to monkey with it either. I mostly just needed some enlightenment, as received from Yourself and Joe.
O.K. Then ~ Now , go DRIVE the darn thing ! what's all this ' 40 or 50 miles ' B.S. ? . If you did all the routine adjustments and can drive it 50 miles , HIT THE ROAD .
Good Idea, Nate! I have just such a plan in the works. I'm planning on driving 'Clarabelle' from Houston to Corpus Christi on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. My In-Laws live near there, and I wanted them to have a chance to see, and ride in my truck. They've had my two donor trucks parked on their property since mid 2007... Also want to take it by my Mom's for her to see. Question: Why do I have to lock the doors to keep them from coming open if pushed on? Everything I can see indicates the latches are travelling full distance. I replaced both latches with parts from our host, so they're new... I can manually push the latch mechanism into the 'latched' position, and using a spare strike plate, can pull it back if it's not locked. I'm beginning to wonder if they are faulty.
Mechanized death Bilbo ; The doors pop open like that because you foolishly bought crappo Chinese repop latches instead of proper N.O.S. ones from Joe , AKA : MotherTrucker . N.O.S. door latches are often on E-Bay too . GET RID OF THEM RIGHT AWAY ~ do not allow anyone to ride in your truck until this is fixed !! . Russ' solution is O.K. I guess but the original latches are fine once they're properly cleaned and greased , N.O.S. latches will need cleaning and greasing before installation . Please , DO NOT LET ANYONE DIE ON YOUR WATCH .
Not to worry, Nate. I have the original latches.... Bought new ones because I thought I was doing good Will clean and re-use the originals, as they are in pretty good condition. I appreciate your input. Thanks. Addendum: Contacting Russ about Altman latches. (Birthday in December)
Door Latches Don't overly trust the originals either , once you clean them really well and look at how they work you'll see why . I used to have a bunch of passable originals , some were worn right in the ratcheting teeth area , not a good thing . As much as I hate to admit it , bear claw door latches are about as safe as you can get .
