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When I came to assemble the rockers back into the cam carrier, I was concerned by the amount of wear on the rocker spindles. Needless to say, I had checked every thing else on the heads except them!

Then, BRAINWAVE!

Take a look at the pic. What do you see?




Look carefully at the lower rocker spindle.

Both rocker spindles are identical and, due to the way the rockers sit on their respective spindles, the spindles can be swapped from one side to the other so that the rockers now sit on fresh metal.

If you are doing the valves or valve seals you will already have the cam carrier off, so take five minutes and do this. The spindles will just push out (or a light tap with a soft drift) leaving the rockers and springs just sitting there if you're careful.
Swap the spindles over and turn them end for end. Make sure that the oil holes point down towards the cams.

I also noticed that the springs can obscure the oil holes so make sure that they are turned so that the holes are clear. I don't know whether or not the springs turn of their own accord when the engine is running; there is nothing to stop them which seems poor design to me.

JOB DONE!

What about the oil holes (for the rockers)? Does the relocation have the correct oil holes?
I have not looked at any here, so I don't know.

You're right to ask this!

I've omitted to say that the spindles need to be swapped end over end as well so that the oil holes point down towards the cams.
That was really stupid!

The same part number applies to both spindles so they are interchangeable but you do need to look out for this.

Editing of the post coming up.

That's cool. I didn't even realize that they came apart when I had mine down.

Well, if there's a next time (knock on wood NOW LET'S NOT START THAT AGAIN!!)

We gotta get this one on the ShopTalk page.

Thanks for the genius idea, Fogey.

Bump

Gonna do this tomorrow to my 75 and wanted to be able to find it again. 5 pages back was a bit much

Whiskerfish wrote:Bump

Gonna do this tomorrow to my 75 and wanted to be able to find it again. 5 pages back was a bit much

And this is our fearless leader.

Brain Cramps I guess

There was definite wear on the left side. I did not measure it but I could feel it with a finger nail. I just finished putting that back together. One note to anyone doing this on a complete bike is that on the Left Hand head you need to remove the Timing belt cover to gain access to the backer Plate bolts. On the left head one of the bolts screws into the Cam holder and you have to remove it prior to removing the Cam Holder. It look like it is not an issue on the Right hand side.

We all get lost even in our own house from time to time

Just finished this and fired it up. What a difference in the Valve train noise level. Much quieter now. One more note to anyone else doing this is that on the right head you have to remove the outer bolt for the fuel pump drive as that bolt goes into the cam carrier.


All in all I rate this as a excellent fix for worn spindles