shortening pushrods

The latest glitch in my rebuild is that after the head work done by Memphis Motor Werks, there's no adjustment on the valve clearances. Even with the adjusters all the way out one valve is tight to the adjuster (I have mushroom head adjusters). Leo suggests trimming the pushrods 40-50 thou.

OK, so I have a lathe available but how do you get the cups off the ends of the pushrods?

The steel should pull off, put them in the freezer first as the alloy will contract more than the steel caps and make it easier. Use loctite to keep the steel caps on when refitting.

Unless you had the head face machined by a large amount or have a combat then it is more than likely it is the valves that are to long.

Valve seats have been cut twice, which brings the stems up higher into the head. The face was also machined to make it flat. Both operations reduce clearance. I'm confident that the machinist used the correct valves.

I have the pushrods in an environmental test chamber and will let them sit at -20 C for a while..