valve spring replacement

[sailhog]

Thought I might share my never-ending pain with ya'll....

I've been in the process of replacing my valve springs, as I found two that were broken. Got the new springs in the mail on Friday, started the installation process the next day. Thought it would be a one or two hour job.... No way Hosa....

For anyone contemplating valve spring replacement on a Catalina 30... your access to the valve gallery isn't exactly optimal. It took me about five hours to replace five springs, and when I was done, I was popping ibuprofen like M&Ms and sweating like a stuck hog.

This morning I went out to finish the job. While trying to remove the first valve spring, the retainer washer shot out from the end of the spring and is god knows where. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare, so I'm waiting for UPS until Wednesday.

Anyway, thought I'd share my anguish. Hope you enjoyed it!

P.S. I'm adamant about buying all my A4 parts from Moyer, as they have bent over backwards to help me on several occasions.... and they're just a good bunch to boot. However, I'm wondering if I could make an exception in this case, since it's an inexpensive item, and I really just want to keep moving on this project.... So the question is: Can one of these valve stem retainers be found in a good auto parts store? I really doubt it, but I thought I'd ask.

[rpowers]

Valve Springs

I feel your pain. Having been there and done that (in a Catalina 27) I know what you are going through.

Five hours for 5 springs is pretty good. Did that include all the carb & manifold removal?

Anyway, yes patience is the key to this operation.

Also, I recently cleaned and painted the bottom of my "engine room" around the engine a bright white, so now, when some small part goes flying off it no longer reaches a dark corner, but rather a clean, well lighted place for finding parts...

-Rick

[sailhog]

Rick,
A few weeks back you posted your instructions for replacing valve springs, and it was a HUGE help. Thanks, Captain.

I have six of the eight done now. However, I found a valve keeper in the valve gallery, so one of the units is missing something kind of important.

I came across a post by Don in which he suggests using a 3/16" x 1" strip of duct tape to hold the valve keepers together. You then lace the tape w/keepers around the back of the valve stem with one hand then lower the spring compression tool with the other. I'm hoping this works better. I've got a crick in my neck that won't go away....

[lat 64]

I think the keepers are standard 5/16" maybe like and old ford falcon six.

[rpowers]

Keepers

I had pretty good success using just a spot of heavy (bicycle) grease to hold the keepers in place. After a few springs I could do it mostly by feel, when the ridge in the keeper hits the groove in the valve stem.

Seems like the tape method might be prone to having the valve retainer washer come down and trap the tape in place. Then you have a new problem of having to remove trapped tape...

-Rick

[sailhog]

Lat,
I'm missing the valve washer retainer, not the keepers. In any case, I placed an order with MMI.

Rick,
I used the grease method as well. One thing I learned is to make sure the forked end of the VS compression tool is perfectly centered around the valve washer retainer so that the keepers can easily slide up on both sides of the valve stem. Any way you cut it, it's a bear....

[Boilerbob7]

Valves

My Catalina 27 has NO ROOM to do valves with the engine in place. I (my young crew) found that sliding the engine into the cabin is "projecty", but well worth the effort. It also enables work to be easily done on usually "hard to reach" (fuel pump) stuff that normally only a six year old is able to get to. They had to remove a few components (alternator, ect).