stickybones
What?
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2001
- Messages
- 1,069
Ever have to replace the stock nylon push type rocker arm buttons (1st pic) and end up breaking half of them trying to seat them in the rocker shaft? Well that's what happened to me, and half of the ones I didn't break didn't seem to seat flush. I figured there had to be a better way that was also more secure. What I did was tap the rocker shaft button holes for a 5/16-18 thread. The holes in the shaft were just about right for this thread size (a bit undersize if I remember, but doable nonetheless without having to increase the diameter any). Note...I have the TA Performance heavy duty thick wall stock replacement shafts. Not sure how well this procedure will work with the stock wall thickness shafts. I purchased some 5/8" OD - 1/4" ID nylon tubestock from McMaster Carr (P/N 8628K31). I opened up the ID on this tubestock to 5/16" with a hand drill and cut wafers ~1/4" thick (2nd pic) using my mitre saw. Using 5/16-18x1/2 low head cap screws (2nd pic) and some thread locker, I then assembled the rocker shaft assembly using these pieces in lieu of the stock push buttons. Although there's some preparation work to do for this modification, I felt this was a better method than the stock style. The 3rd pic is of the stock style button, a freshly cut wafer, a cap screw, a small piece of the nylon tube stock used for the buttons and the box of purchased low head cap screws. The 4th pic is a shot of the final assembly. I did this mod about ~1.5 years ago and so far I haven't had any problems. The hardest part of the job was cutting the button wafers with the mitre saw. Being only ~1/4 thick, they were tough to cut cleanly and half of them ended up shooting half way across the garage after the blade passed through the tubestock. If you have access to a band saw or something more suitable to make a precision cut in the nylon tubestock, that might be the way to go.
