Well, I have completed my valve adjustment and I am thrilled with the result. It was easy, eliminated nearly 75% of the noise associated with my engine and I actually believe the car runs smoother. I have this advice to anyone that may consider adjusting their valve lash: 1) Make certain it needs to be done - The "ticking" is obvious, and you can verify it is coming from your rocker arms by using a piece of tube and placing it against the valve covers while listening to the running engine - like a stethescope. 2) Have two, new, valve cover gaskets ready to replace when you reattach your covers. 3) While the Shop Manual is a great tool - don't follow the instructions for this procedure; they make it far more complicated than it needs to be. 4) Do this adjustment with the engine COLD. Here's how I did it. I know this may sound crazy, perhaps there are better ways - but it worked for me, and I'd enjoy hearing advice on how to improve this: I took a compression gauge and measured the compression at each cylinder, wrote each value down. Since I was already removing the spark plugs - I left them ALL OUT. I removed the valve cover on one side of the engine and noted the position of each rocker arm on the cam shaft. One by one I looked for the rocker arm that was on the complete OPPOSITE side of the lobe. using feeler guages (for the measurements specified in the shop manual) I adjusted the clearance, just to the point where the feeler had light resistance when slid through. I then pushed the car by hand, while in 1st gear. With the plugs removed, it's easy to do - and it rotates the engine to position the rocker arms for adjustment. (You really only end up pushing the car a few inches.) For me, it was the easiest way. Just apply the parking brake when you're in the position you want. Repeat this step for each adjustment, adjusting only the arms that are on the complete OPPOSITE side of the cam lobe. (Low side) For Cylinders 4,5 and 6 (driver's side), if you are carefull...you can unbolt both the compressor and the CPR (warm-up regulator) then swing them up and out of your way - without having to remove a single hose (or deplete your freon from the A/C!). Do not be tempted to over adjust the rocker arms. Remember that metal expands when hot, the clearance is there to allow for expansion when the engine is at operating temperature. When you're done with the adjustments, replace the covers and new gaskets. Perform a compression check on each cylinder again, compare the readings with your first readings. They should be NO LESS THAN what they were before. If any cylinder is considerably less, you most likely overadjusted the vavles for that cylinder, and one valve is not closing completely. The compression check, I used as my sanity check. You can for-go this if you like, but it helped convince me that I did not do more harm than good! I tried to take pictures as I went, but I could only get a few. I have posted them under the Forum's PHOTOS section. On a scale of 1 to 10 (of things I have done to my D) I would have to rate this a 3 or 4 for level of difficulty. I hope this helps someone, and thank everyone that answered my post...for their advice. Eric Dunedin, FL VIN 5557 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Sell a Home for Top $ http://us.click.yahoo.com/RrPZMC/jTmEAA/MVfIAA/HliolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: DMCForum-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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