Posted By: MadMopars
Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 07/31/13 03:35 AM
I was getting ready to clean up and reinstall my rocker arms and found 6 rockers with similar failures as pictured. They basically failed at every other arm except for the last four on one side. In all cases failure occurred at the spring spacer, not at the washers. Is it worth replacing the bearings and trying to use them again? Any thought on what the cause of failure may be? It's strange that the bearing retainer would push out like that is it not? Let me know what you guys think. Thanks, Trent
Posted By: MR_P_BODY
Re: Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 07/31/13 03:42 AM
What brand are those... if you notice the ones you show
are broke on the load side.. I would want to see inside
under the bearing to make any call... whats the open
spring pressure
Posted By: MadMopars
Re: Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 07/31/13 04:09 AM
All failures were on the load side. The internal race is still in place best I can tell at this time. Spring pressure was at 120 at time of failure. I since replaced the springs but have yet to run the motor. Two valve springs had broken on the inner spring besides having weakened across the board which is why I replaced the valve springs. All these findings occurred while swapping in different pistons for added compression.
Posted By: 80fbody
Re: Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 07/31/13 06:06 PM
I think HS has a set out now w/o shaft bearings that's in the $400 range. Might be worth looking into. Supposedly it's their same body which is typically a pretty solid performer.
Posted By: Leon441
Re: Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 08/01/13 09:18 PM
My Jesels would kill bearings when the valve springs got weak. And you already stated you had some broken inners.
I think your springs will fix the cause of the problem. Now just fix your rockers.
Leon
Posted By: MrFoFody
Re: Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 08/02/13 02:25 AM
Looks like the rocker is rubbing the retainer?
Posted By: jb500
Re: Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 08/10/13 02:52 PM
Check the shafts. Probably undersized and causing havoc on the needle cages. Shaft should be .875 and nothing less.
Posted By: TonyS451
Re: Roller Rocker Arm Failure... Thoughts??? - 08/10/13 07:33 PM
I had the exact rockers on my 440 engine w/Edelbrock heads. One of the shafts holding the roller tip backed out and the wheel popped loose from the rocker arm. That's what caused the noise that prompted me to pull the valve covers. Thank God that happened, because it looked like a junkyard of parts laying inside the head. I'll have to locate the pics I took, they were on an old phone.
Bottom line, they are junk rockers. Many of the rockers were cracked in places, the needle bearings were all over and I am lucky to not have exploded the engine with all the debris floating around. Granted, the valve springs were wrong, and really these rockers had no business handling the action of a solid roller cam...even as mild as it is (238@.050/.555)
I replaced the rockers with Hughes brand and the correct valve springs, and have not had any trouble since, one year later with lots of street miles. This all happened the same day I took the car home after purchasing it. The previous owner was nice and split costs with me to replace the rockers and the valve springs. It also needed an intake valve replaced. After the dust settled there were about 6 "good" rockers left out of 16. I threw them all in the trash with the junk ones.
I certainly wouldn't believe it would have been out enough to cause this but who knows. I'll mock them up tonight and see what kind of alignment I had.
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