As I was reading about the noise/alleged valve problem with Percy, I was
reminded of my TR3A when it was new to me. My 3 was sold 'as is' as sort of
a runner, maybe. The car almost didnt start 7 didn't idle. It had very little
powe
power.
I got it home, poped the bonnet & discoverd fuel leaking out of one carb bowel.
I cleaned out both bowels, discovering lots of particulate matter. i placed
a fuel filter in line & hand pumped the pump to fill the filter. The
first pumps of fuel included lots of particals. I looked at looked at the choke
& noticed that it really didn't work. A little lubing & adjusting & the TR
started easily and idled smoothly.
I started driving it about & kept noticing this strange noise in the top end
that got louder when the engine was under load. I adjusted the valves. The
noise went away for a few miles and returned. Now the noisewas most noticable
under load. It sounded like one or two small end rod bushings were dead.
I checked the valves since the noise had briefly gone away when i adjusted
them. two were off by a large amount. I readjusted them, the noise went away
to return soon thereafter. This time I pulled the rocker arm & the pushrods
for close inspection. The rockarms were a little worn but one pushrod was
bent!
I reassembled the top end with straight pushrods. Everything was good for
about 30 miles before the click was back. I had a rockerarm that was very loose
lose again. Everytime I took the TR anywhere i needed to adjust the arm.
I decided that the adjustment screw must be slipping or that the bushing
between the arm & shaft was elongated. So I had the assembly rebuilt with
a new shaft, new bushings and new adjustment screws & nuts. While the
rocker arm faces were being resurfaced the machinist discovered that one of
the arms was cracked. Ahah! I thought. The problem.
I reassembled the engine, adjusted the valves & went for a tour... tap..tap..
Still the problem that got worse as the car was driven, got loud when the
engine was under load. i had visions of bad rod small ends, a cam loab that was
being shaved down or a valve face that was changing contours. That valve
went out of adjustment within a few miles.
One of the times I was adjusting the valves, I tightened the problem valve
down to make sure everything was seated befor adjusting in the proper gap
(I never tried this befor but I was despirate & grasping at anything logical
or not). I noticed a little crack appear on the cup at the top of the pushrod!
I pulled the rocker arm assembly & the pushrod. A close inspection showed
a vertical crack that opened unde pressure. I never noticed it before because
it was always closed or facing away from me when I was adjusting valves.
I poped in another pushrod & my problems were solved. Except for the poor
compression in one cylender Percy's sound problem reminded me of this
incident.
TeriAnn {I roll pushrods whenever I take the rockerarm assembly off}
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