valve keepers

[forcenine]

Hello,
Has anyone actually put valve keepers back on with the engine in place? I have managed to put 4 of the 8 back on successfully by using a little grease inside them, magnetising them a little and my small fingers to shove them up and hold them aligned while slowly releasing the spring over them. Getting the top part of the second one to shove up in alignment with the first one has been the biggest problem. Otherwise it hangs up when the spring is brought down. Access is the biggest problem of course.

If anyone has done this and has tips, please respond!
Lisa

[Tom Alessi]

Valve keepers

Lisa,
As I've heard described somewhere on this site, putting back the keepers with the engine in place is one of the more difficult A-4 jobs. I also coated the keepers with grease to try to keep them in place while I released the spring. I think what i did was to put both of them in place ( you can feel them click into the groove)and try to hold them in position while I lowered the spring. A couple might have taken 2 or 3 tries, others took 6-8 attempts. After the spring was in position I moved the spring back and forth to make sure they held their position. I had to get in all kind of body positions and pray I didn't get a cramp. I think I have a lot of patience and but this job pushed the envelope. If you need any pictures let me know.
Tom
tagraphics@optonline.net

[forcenine]

I did it!

Thanks Tom. Nice to know someone else when through my hell. Heavy blue marine grease helped and I'm sure little fingers too. I can't imagine a man's fingers ever doing it. But I made it through.