VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION New User Forum 1936 Standard valve setting Procedure

I recently purchased a 36 standard coach and after having it for about 3 weeks figured out the clanking noise coming from the engine is 3 bent pushrods. I am unable to straighten them in the car, they keep moving around, so I plan to remove them and use my vise or straight pipe. My question is about resetting the valve clearances. I have the maintenance books for the settings but I am a little unsure about the procedure. I think the settings are made to a particular cylinder when that cylinder is at top dead center as shown by the distributor pointing at the cylinder plug wire on the distributor. Last time I set valves was on a volkswagon beetle about 35 years ago. Help is greatly appreciated.

It will be necessary to remove the bent pushrods. Before taking apart, if you mark and note (write it down) the orientation of each screw slot and how many threads are exposed on the rocker arm you will be able to get them close to the original adjustment. Once you get them straight and back in place then all that is needed is run the engine until it is hot for the final setting. You can set them with the engine running or stopped. It is not necessary to have each cylinder on TDC just have the valve fully up or closed if done stopped.

A vise is a good tool to use to straighten them. If you roll them on a piece of 2x4 or other support that only contacts a small area, it will be easy to tell if they are straight and if not where the bend is. I have done it many times. To help prevent valve sticking a little light oil on each valve stem now and adding a few ounces of ATF or MMO to the tank when you put in gas is a good idea. Modern gas will stick the intake valves eventually.

I use a piece of flat glass for testing the push rods for straightness.

Thanks for all the info. This site is invaluable. I am sure the rods were bent by the previous owner. He had it running but only at high rpms. Last time the car was registered was 9 years ago so I have allot of tweaking to do or more. The carburetor was gummed up so I put a rebuilt one on it and now it idles well.

If the ends of the pushrod don't hang over the glass it may make you think that a rod is bent. Most pushrods with the cupped ends are not exactly round so there will be a wobble when rolled on a flat surface. If only the middle of the rod is supported it is possible to view the machined ends for wobble. If they roll straight and also the shaft then the rod is straight. Straight pushrods like in '29-'30 (removable cupped ends) and V-8 Chevys can be checked on a piece of glass,

Actually the best method is to chuck up the machined ends in a lathe using centers. Then the straightness can be measured accurately. Most don't have a lathe that will work.

As it turns out I left the pushrods in the car and was able to straighten them using leverage from a 2 by 4, a rubber mallat and even screw drivers near the top where the pushrods go through the head. They are very resilient and move around alot but the screw drivers help stabilize them. It took most of 4 hours playing around with them. None of them look perfectly straight. I will check them before putting on all of the gaskets. I have already has to buy a second valve cover gasket. Thanks again for all the help. My car has 65000 miles on it according to the odometer. The inside of the engine sure looks like it. Allot of brown scum from the oil. It took a couple of hours to clean up.

As Chipper suggested above, it would have been quicker and easier to straighten the push rods out of the car. Removing and replacing them is not all that difficult to do. And, out of the car you could have gotten the push rods perfectly straight, which would avoid possibly doing them a second time.