Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Recently I had an owner come to me with a "rebuilt" engine on which the rocker arms weren't oiling. They were so dry, they were actually squeaking.

I knew what the problem was, but I said, "Call your rebuilder and ask if he removed the end plugs and cleaned the interior of the rocker shafts."

Of course, the answer was, "No. We did run them through the hot tank and they looked clean."

When I removed the shafts, running without oil had ruined the shaft and rocker. I pulled out one soft plug and showed the owner the interior was solid with old crud. No oil could move through there to lubricate the rockers.

I sold him one of my rebuilt sets. His will have to go to a shop on the coast to have the shafts ground and hard chromed and the rockers fitted with bushings.

The low-ball rebuilder shop not taking an hour to disassemble the rocker shafts and clean them cost the owner another $500 and some aggravation.

jack vines

Purple power and a soaking for about 6 months.... Good to go. But since most are in a hurry, pull the plug like Jack says.

I might add, the plugs vary from difficult to impossible to "pull". That's why most don't do it correctly.

What I've been doing is chuck the shaft in a lathe, put a 5/8" drill in a chuck in the tailstock and drill out the plug.

Much easier and faster than trying to pull or knock out.

jack vines

Yep,
Never fails, when rebuilding a motor from an old Packard or Studebaker that, "ran when parked". They usually turn out to have been parked several decades ago, and if the rebuilder leaves one stone un-turned it will come back to haunt later.

I must confess though, I have never pulled the plugs on those shafts. Usually, strip the rockers off, then soak, then use a spray can of carb cleaner to insure all the holes are open. No doubt, it would be wiser to pull the end plugs and run a bore brush through the shaft.

There's just a ton of labor in rebuilding a 50 year old motor, given the attention to detail most of them need.

plug for my shafts

5/8s

thanks for the tip jack,

Attach file:

---

  (83.97 KB)

Ive cleaned several similar set ups, including the PV8 rocker shafts.
Place a heavy string thru one hole in the shaft. Use compressd air to blow it to the hole at opposite end. Fish out end of string. Tie a small piece of rage to it and pull it thru. Make string long enuf so that swab is tied about centre of string so that string can be simply drawn baxk and forth with out loosing an end inside of shaft.
Cleaned out ends near plugs with a stiff wire. I usd keroaene but carb cleaner mite work better.
Kind.of like.cleaning a gun barrel.

Some years back there was a vendor at the Frederick MD Packard meet who had a 5-gallon bucket pretty much filled with NOS V8 rocker shafts. As I recall they were $1 each; I bought 4 just on speculation should I ever face an engine rebuild (which I haven't yet), wish I had bought them all.

my galleys even after 2 block cleanings my lifter oil galley running front to back both sides had gunk, air spray and long oil hole brush it took a long time to clean it out, 60 years of oil,, really can't do it with engine in car, you need to remove the plugs on rear of engine to brush thru.

Is it Ok if I bump this thread? I just finished cleaning my rocker shafts & it went pretty smooth. Instead of disassembling everything, I used hose clamps to keep all the parts in order when I removed the cotter pins. You can use a self tapping screw and a couple of washers to extract one plug & simply drive the other out with a long rod. Once you have gotten this far, a 38 cal bore brush in a parts washer makes everything pretty copacetic inside! It was easy to slide the rockers up & down to make sure all the chunks were gone. The un-drilled plugs were suitable for re use but @ $ .50 apiece, I thought what the heck. Now everything is clean & happy. Just remember to remove the clamps and install NEW cotter pins.

Attach file:

---

  (112.18 KB)


  (120.53 KB)

How did you grind the tips of the rockers without removing them from the shaft?
jack vines