Subject / Victim - the original 440HP in my 68 Sport Fury. It appears to be a healthy 116K mile engine, and I'm going over the wear items to make it a reliable cruiser for another 10-20K miles. I was pulling the rocker shafts getting ready to do the valve stem seals when this happened:
Engine_and_Transmission_Details by clair_davis, on Flickr

Mind you, this was when I went to pick up the shaft - I had loosened the hold-down bolts in sequence to avoid any strange stress on the shaft, and the end just fell off. I've never seen this before... but it appears to have failed some time ago judging by the color of the fracture - same coating of oil film as the rest of the shaft. Nothing I saw on previous inspections, and it didn't seem to affect how the engine ran.

So, I need another rocker shaft. Mancini sells singles for $50-ish, RockAuto has Sealed Power singles for $30-ish. Last rocker shafts I bought were Pioneer brand for a small block and they seemed OK, but not an option through RA. Not sure who makes the Mancini parts. Is one clearly better than the other, or is there another option to consider? I'm not looking for anything exotic, a NOS shaft would suit this job just fine, and I intend to keep the existing rockers and pushrods since they all appear to be in good shape and clean.

Thanks!

Clair

Hmmm.... Never seen that before.

I bought a set off eBay from Elgin Industries. As I recall, super stout and U.S. made.

Nothing wrong with a good used one should be easy to come up with.

Good used one should work. I've never seen that, either. Are you a member of Cowtown Mopars? Someone could surely fix you up with freebie. I've got plenty you could have but I don't make to Ft worth very often.

If you decide to go with used stock ones and can't find any let me know as I MIGHT have some (not sure). If I do cover shipping and they are yours. Racing today out of State so I won't be able to check till tomorrow. Message me if you need them and I will check tomorrow.

Plus 5% discount code which is easy to find around. And cheap shipping from them


Rocker shaft from Rockauto

If not getting used around ( at some or just shipping cost ) I'd go with Rockauto

Thanks, guys!
Fastmark, I am a long-time member of Cowtown Mopars, but their website and FB page are pretty slow compared to Moparts...

I've got another 440 in the corner, but it's another ~120K mile engine and all of its parts have gotten happy together over the years. One way or the other, I'm going to be short one shaft, so I figured I'd just get a new one from somewhere. As long as there aren't any vendors selling junk, I'll just add one in from RockAuto when I get the gaskets and other bits coming to button this old girl back up.

I appreciate all the offers for freebies, this place rocks!

Clair

If FedEx and DHL in Venezuela weren't stuck at this moment ( problem with the goverment taxes agency, although I think is something political )t I could give you a set for a shipping price too. Barelly used couple of years on PRW rocker set what got brass bushings sized!

Before and after clean

When you price everything over at Summitracing

The Sealed Power Stamped Steel Rocker Arms and Shafts are literally half the price of the Mopar Performance Rockers and Shafts

Does that mean there only half as good