KE4AVB wrote:First let me say I understand on the problems with your mother. My mother developed serious health issues which taking care of her became a full time job until her death. I had to give up working on anything petty much. I am just now getting back into it full time.
To remove the valves you will need a valve spring compressor and there is several type and styles out there. I use the following tool myself for these l-head engines. This is available as after-market and is available through your local auto part supply stores. There is other versions of removal tools but this one work fairly well on this l-heads as is fairly reasonable cost wise.
First you would position the spring retainer so the larger part of it keyway faces away from you or toward you whichever is easiest for you to remove it later. Here is a picture of what the retainer looks like. This engine use the same type of retainer as the Briggs l--heads.
With the valve in the closed position, you insert the tool it engages as of the spring as possible including the retainer and compress the assembly. Gently work it to disengage the retainer so you can remove the valve. Once the valve is removed you can remove the spring and retainer.
Now to adjust the valve gap you hand file or grind the stem off ever so slightly and check the clearances as you go. It will not take much to do this and it can be easily over done if you get too aggressive about this filing. Just remember that this filing must be keep at 90 degrees of the stem so there will be no high and low spots. For me, I do my adjustment for the exhaust valve when the engine is on the intake stroke (intake valve fully open and exhaust fully closed) as to have compression release out of play. When you get close to final clearance gap you need to reinstall the spring and retainer to fully seat the valve or your gap checks will be off. Yes it is a little time consuming what it takes it to get the clearances right.
Also once you get valve to fully seat it is time check your valve face and seat for pitting and hand grind them using valve grind compound and the suction cup tool for good seating if needed before final gap setting.
I would set the clearance to larger clearance gap in the specs as these will close up over time again; otherwords, if the spec is .004" to .008" then I would use the .008" clearance. It is right opposite on OHV valves as they tend to open up over time.
Once you get things where you want them and after you reinstall the spring and retainer hand cycle the engine a few turns to make sure you have the retainer lock into place. Then you can reassemble the engine.
KE4AVB..............I know I didn't reply to this post until now, but I wanted to thank you for all the great information in it. I went ALL AROUND my city and I couldn't find a spring compressor anywhere, nor could I find the suction cup tool to lap the valves. NAPA could have ordered me a spring compressor, but it would have taken a few days and it was $50. I can afford it, bit didn't want to wait so I just used the screwdriver/zip-tie method which worked pretty good once I nailed down the procedure. When I was done lapping and cleaned up the lapping compound, I took a 2X4 and a clamp and clamped down the valves to make sure they were properly seated before taking my lash measurements. They're a little under the "max" settings you suggested, but if I have to do them again eventually I will. Also, if I ever do another engine, I'll buy the proper tools ahead of time. Thanks for all your great posts. Thanks to everyone for all their great posts and advice. I truly appreciate it. I have read every one of them and appreciate all the advice.
Yeah, my mother won't leave her house. Notice I said won't, and not can't. Basically, what happened is she used to go to a doctor regularly. When she stopped leaving the house, she stopped going to the doctor. She was on HBP medication. Eventually, the doctor she had been seeing stopped renewing her prescriptions, since she hadn't been to see him in so long and hadn't seen any blood test results in so long. Actually, he had renewed them MULTIPLE times whenever the pharmacy called his office for a renewal. But, eventually he stopped. I didn't know this. I only found out because I just happened to think one day that my mother hadn't told me in a LONG time that she was going to call the pharmacy and reorder her pills. I confronted her and she finally came clean. Since she won't leave the house, she needed a visiting physician service to come in. She didn't want any part of that. This went on for weeks and we had a lot of arguments about it. Eventually, I just called her insurance company on my own and had them get something going. I think they called her and talked her into it. After the doctor started coming to her house, I later found out that she hadn't had any pills in 1 1/2 years! Well, she's now at least back on HBP medication. There's still other issues, though.
EDIT: I forgot to ask something. I wanted to ask about what you said about the valve lash decreasing on these types of engines. Can you please explain why the lash decreases with use. It would seem because of the metal to metal contact between the valve angles and the seat angles, and between the valve stem and the lifter surfaces, that wear would occur over time and lash would effectively result in "no change". I can see how wear on the sealing angles would result in a decrease in lash. But, wouldn't contact (and resulting wear) between the stem surface and lifter surface "counter" the decreasing lash with an increase in lash? I'd just like to understand this better for my own sake and stick it in my mind's library for future use. Thanks
