Bought a set I know are way too long. Am planning on measuring for the correct length and I was going to shorten them myself. These are Trend pushrods. IIRC aren't they just a light press fit at the cup and the ball? I should be able to use a set of soft jaws on a vice and pull the cup off, then stick in a lathe, or valve grinder to cut down and just de burr them and press back together?

Has anyone ever don't this? or should I jus send these back to trend and let them do it?

Remember Im kind of a tight azz...

Kasey

The ends are much harder than the tubes, so it may be possible to cut off from the tube as much as you need them shortened using a hacksaw blade, and pound the end back down. If this is for any performance motor I would not personally do that, but I have in my old VW flat 4 motor past.

Make the call to see how much they would charge. Flat rate USPS boxes are cheap.

I use a cutoff tool in a lathe, feed it into the tubing until it just hits the hardened tip then I use the claw end of a pry bar to remove the tip. Depending on how much you want to shorten them, the inside of the tube might be too small....sometimes they're only reamed a short distance in.

I did this using a lathe but only needed to shorten them a 1/8". I left the cup end in the pushrod and used a parting tool bit to machine an 1/8" off the pushrod till I reached the cup insert peg then pressed the cup further in. Worked fine but if you need to shorten them a lot you would have to check how deep the holes for the pushrod ends were drilled so you do not bottom out trying to press the ends in after you have shortened them.
Good Luck

I had to shorten a set of pushrods a couple of years ago. This is a lot of work to do correctly so it's probably one of the things you should pay a specialist to do. I was determined to go to a car cruise the next evening and I had the proper tools in hand to do the job so I burned a night making my own pushrods.

I tried pulling some cup tips out but it was a really tight press. I ruined two of tips before I gave up on that. I had a complete set of new cup tips and I was cutting enough off the pushrod that I wound up just cutting the pushrod with the old tip still inserted. You really need a lathe to get a good square cutoff. And Comp sells a special drill bit for reaming the ID and squaring the tip of the pushrod after cutting. The biggest headache is being able to cut all the pushrods to the same exact length without having to do a lot of measuring. I used a checking pushrod to get the correct length on the engine. Then I put one of the new cup ends into the drill chuck in my lathe tailstock. I gave the cup a little dad of engine building moly lube. Then I locked the cutoff tool at about 1/2" away from the headstock chuck jaws. I inserted the ball end of the checking pushrod into the cup end that was in the tailstock chuck. I moved the tailstock to the right until the cutoff tool would cut to the exact correct length on the unfinished end of the pushrod (in the chuck jaws). Then I locked everything down so it couldn't move. Then I just cut each pushrod to the correct length now that I had a repeatable jig setup in my lathe.

After cutting all 16, I went back and used the Comp reamer tool to clean up the ID and seating edge. Make sure you lathe is on a slow speed when you do this or it will squeal (and vibrate) like a pig. And use plenty of lubricant.

Next up - pressing in all the ends. Comp sells a jig for pressing the ends in. I'm a tool junkie so I bought the fixture. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/COMP-Cams-4913-Pushrod-Assembly-Tool-Cup-End-Ball-End-Fixture-Each,216797.html It holds the pushrod and the tip and makes sure they are aligned when you start pressing them together. I fit all that into my hydraulic shop press and started pressing away. The bottle jack on my press has an air pump on it. If you're using the Comp tool, you can put your fingers around the top where the ramrod goes into the tool and on each pump of the press, you can feel if the rod is moving. You can then stop when you feel that the tip has bottomed out in the pushrod. It's really easy to put one or two extra pumps into the bottle jack and the pushrod will kink (ask me how I know

So I did this on 500" B Motor with a 0.590" lift solid cam. It's run fine for three years with these pushrod. I probably wouldn't mess around like this making pushrods for an expensive motor with a big lift roller cam.

I forgot about the reamer. That makes sense to have it trued p with a reamer.

Im calling trend now.

Kasey

WELL SH#T

Sounds like Trend anneals the tubes so the don't crack before pressing the cup into the pushrod, so that being said if the annealing isn't far enough they cant do it. If they can its 50 bucks

Kasey

Well, they know what they can or will do, and what they won't.

If it was just annealing, one heats the end to full red heat and let air cool.

But., by the time they cut to length, either pull pushrod ends or supply new ones, ream the hole to fit the new ends, they've got enough time ($$$) into the pushrod that it makes sense just to buy a new set the right length.

If you're doing it yourself and your time is worth nothing, then shortening could make good sense.

Another route is http://www.oepushrods.com/, thanks to MrP for the tip.

R.

What makes me nervous: if the fit between the cup and the new shortened end isn't what Trend etc. wants it may split the tube.
I'd have them do it.

Well If they wont do it, this is a low enough HP project that I may just buy the reamer and do it myself and use green bearing retaining lock tight and be fine with that.

Hell Ive pulled old Comp pushrods out of an engine and was able to just pull the cup ends out. That engine didn't show any signs of any issues

Kasey