Stripped rocker arm stud

[dyasko]

I was adjusting my valves yesterday and I got to cylinder 6 intake valve. It was the last one I had to do and when I went to lock down the nut after I had it adjusted, the nut just kept spinning and never really got tight. I've tried to back the nut off a couple different ways, with leverage and with the cam on the top of it's stroke to maybe provide some leverage that way but it won't come off, it just keeps spinning. There's not enough space in the head to fit a nut cracker and since the nut won't move at all I can't even put a second nut on the thread and try to back the stud out I don't think. What are my options here? I'm not actually sure if it's the nut or the stud that's stripped, I'm just speculating at this point.


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[ahlem]

Pack the area full of grease and use a dremel to grind a break point in it. The grease catches the grindings. Fire extinguisher handy of course.

[Chessmaster]

Dont worry this happened to me last month. Unfortunately I had to use a dremel with a metal cutting wheel to cut off the nut. Make sure use lots of small magnets and cover all the nearby rocker and lobes.they will be tons of shavings if you have to do it this way. Make sure to change filter and oil soon after. Luckily there was no shavings in my drain pan. My stud was stripped and would just let the nut spin.

[Andy.B]

Well, that is a new one.

I would try clamping vise grips as tight as you can on each of the 3 orientations on the nut, then try to wedge a screwdriver between the nut and the rocker arm as you turn it to see if you can get it off. If you pull the retainers off the shaft, you will be able to slide the rocker arms back and forth on the shaft to get more space if needed.

As tempted as I would be to just take a cutoff wheel to it, I would then stress about ruining the engine with rogue metal shavings. Your pretty lucky that it as cylinder 6, since you should have enough clearance to take the timing gear off the cam, pull out the rocker shaft retainer, and the rocker arm retainers, and slide the shaft forwards towards the radiator far enough to get the offending rocker arm out without having to pull the head.

Good luck getting it apart! Keep us posted.

[jeffnhiscars]

The nut is softer than the stud so that's the thread you stripped. The goods news is since you can't tighten it it should be free enough to remove along the lines of what Andy suggests. I also agree that a grinder poses a huge risk to your engine and if it were me and that was my only option, I'd pull the head.

Keep in mind that when the nuts comes off ...and it will...that stripped thread is basically a mini slinky and you don't want to lose it..

[digger]

at worst pull the rocker you only need to slide the shaft a few inches.

the aftermarket (FEBI) nuts, bolts and eccentrics for rockers seem like junk i.e. softer and more prone to stripping than proper OEM stuff maybe secret chinese grades are used these days. FEBI shafts are fine.

when i first built my engine and did the first clearance adjustment i notice that some didnt feel right. i replaced with old crusty genuine stuff that had done probably 150k miles from old valvetrain stuff i accumulated and it is better quality. i used a clean rag to stop things falling into the sump.

i would use genuine hardware for rockers.

[dyasko]

Okay looks like I'll steer clear of the dremel route, so tomorrow I'll be trying the vice grips and if those don't work I'll be pulling the timing gear. It's a shame I just did the timing belt a couple months ago. Thanks for everyone's input


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[dyasko]

Well, that is a new one.

I would try clamping vise grips as tight as you can on each of the 3 orientations on the nut, then try to wedge a screwdriver between the nut and the rocker arm as you turn it to see if you can get it off. If you pull the retainers off the shaft, you will be able to slide the rocker arms back and forth on the shaft to get more space if needed.

As tempted as I would be to just take a cutoff wheel to it, I would then stress about ruining the engine with rogue metal shavings. Your pretty lucky that it as cylinder 6, since you should have enough clearance to take the timing gear off the cam, pull out the rocker shaft retainer, and the rocker arm retainers, and slide the shaft forwards towards the radiator far enough to get the offending rocker arm out without having to pull the head.

Good luck getting it apart! Keep us posted.

So to do this, would the affected rocker arm have to be off cam in order for the shaft to be pulled out? And also will I be able to pull the rocker shaft out with the head still in the car and without using a drift in the back of the shaft to hit it out?

[dyasko]

In case anyone else has the same sort of problem, what I ended up doing is removing the radiator, mech fan and the upper timing belt cover to expose the camshaft gear. The bolt securing the cam gear to the head is a external torx bolt(e12). I removed the bolt which allowed me to also remove the plastic dust cap from inside the cam gear. Do not remove the gear itself unless you want to put on a new timing belt and retime the engine. With the dust cap off, I was able to slide the rocker arm shaft out through the hole in the cam gear. I used a rag and channel lock pliers on the shaft to slide it out and I was then able to slide the rocker off the shaft and replace it or cut the nut off with a dremel without getting metal shards in the engine.


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[jeffnhiscars]

In case anyone else has the same sort of problem, what I ended up doing is removing the radiator, mech fan and the upper timing belt cover to expose the camshaft gear. The bolt securing the cam gear to the head is a external torx bolt(e12). I removed the bolt which allowed me to also remove the plastic dust cap from inside the cam gear. Do not remove the gear itself unless you want to put on a new timing belt and retime the engine. With the dust cap off, I was able to slide the rocker arm shaft out through the hole in the cam gear. I used a rag and channel lock pliers on the shaft to slide it out and I was then able to slide the rocker off the shaft and replace it or cut the nut off with a dremel without getting metal shards in the engine.


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Good job

[Ether-D]

In case anyone else has the same sort of problem, what I ended up doing is removing the radiator, mech fan and the upper timing belt cover to expose the camshaft gear. The bolt securing the cam gear to the head is a external torx bolt(e12). I removed the bolt which allowed me to also remove the plastic dust cap from inside the cam gear. Do not remove the gear itself unless you want to put on a new timing belt and retime the engine. With the dust cap off, I was able to slide the rocker arm shaft out through the hole in the cam gear. I used a rag and channel lock pliers on the shaft to slide it out and I was then able to slide the rocker off the shaft and replace it or cut the nut off with a dremel without getting metal shards in the engine.


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That's how you do it. Sorry, late to the game...