"Cold" Valve Adjustment

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NeverGiveUpYota

NeverGiveUpYota

Dare me.
10 Year 15 Year
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
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East Hampton, CT
Seeking over the phone guidance now. I have her all opened up and feeler guage in hand. Measurements seem odd, some tight, some not. And for the life of me I can not bump my truck to get TDC in the sight window. Its either before or after and is pissing me off. I have both marks lightened up with whiteout.
Give a girl a hand!
Felicity
 
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Try to use the socket on crank nut, with long bar to get the TDC? Or adjust alt belt to be really tight and turn with socket on alt pulley? Remember to readjust belt tension after.
I am usually able to pull on the belt to alt when getting close to the line on flywheel.
If you have a few valves looser than usual, that is fine, it's when they are tighter than spec problems occur.
Are you going +.02 for each intake and exhaust?

eta: are all the sparkplugs out?
 
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Put the tranny in 4th, parking brake off and if you have the Cruiser on a smooth, level surface and some room to roll it you can easily roll the truck and align the timing mark. Lean into the engine bay at the right front tire so that you can see the window and on the top of the tire roll the Cruise forward, or back.
 
or remove the spark plugs, tighten the alternator belt, then turn the engine via the power steering nut. Always in the same direction. If you overshoot the timing mark go around another 2 times. Don't back up.
 
Thanks all! I contacted Dave, @roadstr6 and he told me about the alt pulley method. I tell you it's good to have phone numbers!
So I'll pull the plugs, put her in neutral and hopefully the socket I picked up will be enough for the newish alt I just swapped in, a cs130.
Unfortunately soaking wet I'm not much more than 125lbs so me being able to push the truck is sorta just a laugh for the old lady who sees all I do next door.
Went back and forth w/ my neighbor for a socket but then his was too deep w/ his wonkin 1/2 wrench. So thankfully found a stubbie 15/16 at Home Depot tonight and will see what I can do after work tmrw.
 
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Power steering nut isn't a nut. Someone put a Volvo one in at one time and it's round whatever it is that holds the pulley to the pump.
At some point I'm gonna go sag.
 
If you have no other options...AND... If you are careful, you can turn the alternator by using a large screwdriver, and turn the alternator by putting the screwdriver into the fins of the alternator.

I've done this several times with no bad effects. If you have to much resistance due to too much compression...remove the spark plugs.
 
Thanks. I appreciate that tip! Plugs will be removed. If the socket I bought and the ones the neighbor hooked me up w/ don't work I will surely give that a shot.
 
All of the suggestions you guys are giving are so much more difficult then it has to be, just pull the inspection cover under the bellhousing and use a crowbar on the flywheel teeth.
 
yeah but the problem with that is that if she is doing this alone then she is getting up and down all the time to figure out where she is.
Easiest way I have found was to pull on the AC or ALT belt and slowly move it. Worked fine for me the few times I have done this.
 
If you want to make it even easier, raise the rear wheels on jackstands, put the truck in 4th gear and rotate the rear tire to move the engine. Pulling the sparks will make it easier, but I use this method to turn the higher compression diesel over (with glow plugs left in) without a problem. The only tricky bit is learning how far the wheel turn affects the crankshaft turn- but you'll figure it out pretty quickly.
 
Felicity, as you can see, there's 8 million ways to do this, which can make it even more confusing, sometimes.

This tool makes it much much easier - you can do it with two hands instead of 2.5 - if you have 12 mm adjustment nuts on the rockers. Earlier 2Fs have 14mm.

I've seen them a Autozone, etc. It's a knock-off of an expensive Snap-On tool.

Amazon.com: Valve Adjustment Tool 12Mm Jam Nut: Automotive

s-l500.jpg
 
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I think it's a lot easier and faster to check the valve lash when the engine is hot & idling. I tried checking them once with the engine off & cold. I'll never do it that way again.
 
DONE! she's a sweet smooth running BADASS now.
 
Per Dave's @roadstr6 suggestion on the phone yesterday, I used the method of pulling the plugs, putting her in neutral, e brake off, and used a wrench and a socket to turn the crank via the alt nut. Was very very easy. I tried doing them in groups off what Jim suggests but I was having a hard time visualizing it as I went down the line of the group because some were crazy tight. I ended up just starting at 1 and putting a marker next the the arm and leaning over with a closed wrench and a flat head. Hardest part was the fact that the engine is nearly as long as I am tall. I used .009 and .015 for my measurements and made them fairly tight.
 
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Will need to tweak timing and the carb settings again cuz she is still funky off choke. Might pull the diz now and recurve it too. ;)
 
Sensitive vac gauge with large supply hose will be more twitchy than a less sensitive gauge through a long length of normal vac hose.

I have two vacuum gauges, an Autometer in the cab and a hand held MityVac. The Autometer is rock solid. The MityVac needle vibrates a bit, though not as much as yours did in that vid. Your vac is high. That's good.
 
Yea that vac measurement goes to show I don't have any leaks. I had even tried the carb spray trick yesterday and could not discern any ups or downs at all. Feeling good over here and patting myself on my back.
 
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