monday night, valve covers off, now what?

[Duckman]

I have some lifter noise, I have the valve cover off. The rockers are tight, what can I do to get them to stop chattering?

[Duckman]

I will be checking this often tonight, I have to drive it to work in the morning so I was hoping to get something accomplished tonight. Thanks for any input.

[Duckman]

a few of the pushrods spin really easily, no pressure on the rocker arm. and a few are tight and wont spin by finger pressure. What does this mean?

[TexasJ10]

A 1992 factory service manual indicates that this noise could be 1) Insufficient oil supply, 2)Rocker arms or pivots worn, 3)Push rods worn 4) Excessive hydraulic lifter bleed down, 5) missing Valve lock,6) loose rocker arms, 7 broken valve spring. It basically says to replace any of the above that is defective. I know this isn't much help, but maybe it will give you something to look for.

[Wag-OH-neer]

I don't believe that factory valvetrain is adjustable. So as TexasJ10 said you probably have some worn parts that need replaced. I would put it back together for now until you have more time to diagnose the problem

[Joe J-Truck]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Duckman:
I have some lifter noise, I have the valve cover off. The rockers are tight, what can I do to get them to stop chattering?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

"if valve clearance is too large, part of the lift of the camshaft will be used in removing excessive clearance. Consequently, the valve will not be opening as far as it should. This condition has two effects: the valve train components will emit a tapping sound as they take up the excessive clearance and the engine will perform poorly because the valves don't open fully and allow the proper amount of gases to flow in and out of the engine." chilton's manual 2-23.

You need to set the valvelash (lifter preload) with the lifter on the base circle of the camshaft lobe. Every mechanic has his own way of doing this. I will tell you my way, which I think works pretty well.
AMC v8's have adjustable rockers similar to a smallblock chevy. Each rocker nut must be adjusted individually. Start with one side of the engine and remove the valve cover. Disconnect the ingition hot lead so the engine doesn't start running. I like to adjust both valves on one cylinder before moving to the next. Start with the cylinder closest to the front and work back. Bump the starter so the engine turns over enough to have the first intake valve opens and begins to close. The rocker will lift up and begin to go down. This insures the exhaust valve is closed and the lifter is on the base circle.
Spin the pushrod with your thumb and forefinger as you tighten the nut. When it starts to get hard to spin, turn the nut 1/4 turn more and its set.
Some people say 1/2 turn past. I'd try it with 1/4 turn and depending on how worn your engine is, you may need to go to 1/2 turn.
Bump the engine over so now the exhaust valve is open and starting to close and the intake is closed and on the cam's base circle.
Adjust the intake valvelash in the same way as the exhaust valve.
Move to the next cylinder and repeat the process, making sure to do your adjustments when the lifter corresponding to the rocker you are adjusting is on the base circle of the camshaft and the valve is completely closed. The rocker will be down all the way.

When you have adjusted all the cylinders' intake and exhaust rockers on one side, replace the valve cover and move to the other side.

When you're all done, button everything back up and test run your engine.

Let me know if this helps!!

:D

[Joe J-Truck]

to get really technical, set the rocker retaining nut to 23 ft. lb. (making sure the lifter is on the base circle of the cam lobe)

[Duckman]

Well I know it's not technical and therefore probably not correct but I checked each nut. They were all really tight. What I did was tighten the ones with the loose pushrods. I know now that I should do it one cylinder at at time. I didn't turn any nut more than 1/8 to 1/4 turn. Will this damage anyting? I have it all put back together already. Thanks guys for your help.

[Lugnut]

Firstly, I haven't seen any of the AMC V8's with adjustable rockers. You just simply tighten down the rocker stud nuts. The adjustment is done for you when you tighten the nuts.
What I HAVE encountered on two different AMC V8's with lifter noise is (sorry to tell you this) a worn camshaft, and there's only one thing you can do - replace the camshaft and lifters. You must replace both. I don't know what caused this wear problem, coulda' been not changing the oil regularly or running engine with a low oil level.
There is a way you can check for a worn camshaft without pulling it out. Have a mechanic, using the proper guage, measure the lift of each lobe as the engine is turned. If you've got a worn camshaft it'll show up after only a few lobes are checked. The possibility of just one lobe being worn down is not likely since you have said that you've got what sounds like several lifters making noise.
One thing you can check is pull out the pushrods, one at a time, roll it around on a smooth surface and see if it is bent. All pushrods have an ever-so-slight bend in them to make them rotate and not wear in one spot when the engine is running, but they should not be noticeably bent.
As for the lifters, they do seem to hold up pretty well for a long time, 'sides, if you're gonna replace the lifters, you're gonna have to pull the intake and if you're gonna go to that trouble, well.......

[Crazy_Jeepman]

The Valve Train is NOT adjustable. Rockers are torqued to 23 ft lbs and that is the end of it. Causes for lifters clattering, bad sludged up or collapsed lifters, worn cam, poor oil pressure. In the case of the AMC 360 I always lean to bad CAM. However change cam & cam bearings, lifters, pushrods, timing set. I only do this if I feel the motor is a decent runner. I would not consider this job on a high mileage worn out engine. So if engine is not in very good condition, bolt valve covers back on. Put a good heavier oil in it, and drive it. ;)

[Bob Barry]

I have to concur on the cam being the heart of the problem; AMC V-8's are notorious for rounding off the lobes. There could be wear on the pushrods and rockers (on my GW, the pushrod wore the rocker-arm so much that it finally punched right on through!), so you could conceivably make things somewhat better by changing the pushrods and rocker-arms, but then you're just buying some extra time before you do the rebuild that you will soon need.

BTW, AMC V-8's used adjustable stud-mounted rockers (like the Chevys) until about '74 or '75, at which point they went to the non-adjustable pedestal-mounted rockers much like the Oldsmobiles.

[dennis w helt]

hey duckman i see you live in kc do you go wheelin around here?