Gen 3 Rocker arm moving?

Hi old Mopar engine guy now into Police cars have about 11 now. Of course a few are having problems mostly flat cams. My question is there are wear marks on both rocker shafts that show the rocker arms moving on the shaft about .25 of an inch. Is this normal? Is there a fix? are they losing lift with this occurring?
3 engines with flat cams all cylinder 4 or 6 dropped/bent pushrods.
Anyone have any concrete answers to help me out?
New to working on the Gen 3.

it dont look like they are moving to me, it has the same discoloring at the hold downs also.

Bent push rod is one of two things. One it was not seated in the lifter when the shafts were tightened down. Two the valve is not opening correctly needing excess pressure trying to open and the push rod is the weakest link..

Lifter failure is the most common cause for pushrod failure.


The pushrod locates the rocker arm, the rockers need side clearance even with the aftermarket rocker stabilizers they sell. 1/4 is fine

A lifter does not bend a pushrod and make it look like a u-bolt.

Ok if you say so 😂

Happens every day in a Chevy and dodge dealer. Lifter collapses or the needle bearing/roller fails making the lifter shorter allowing the pushrod to become not aligned and can get between things they don’t belong between.
Sub 10k mile 5.3/6.2 are doing this everyday. I’ve done hemis that the same thing happened.

I agree if the pushrod comes out and gets jammed where it should not be. As long as the push rod is in place it should not bend unless there is something binding in the rocker or valve not allowing proper travel. Then the pushrod is the weak link. Poster did not say much about the rest so there must be a reason for this failure.

When I first started messing with these I bent a couple because I did not get them seated properly evidently. They are kind of a pain sometimes to get em all in the cup on both ends while tightening them down especially when done in the car or worse yet a truck. Neither of the ones I screwed up bent valves, just put in new pushrods and all was well.


As far as the movement on the shaft the factory had a few different things they did over the years, I think first was a sleeve sort of thing, I saw one with springs between them but don't remember the year but it had to have been pre-eagle and some had a C clip on them and now most of them have nothing, factory must have decided they were not needed.


I always install them with nothing now and make sure they slide about 1/8th or 1/4 inch side to side when the valve is closed to double check they are not installed wrong. When the lifter pumps up it pushes the rocker into the pedestal and never the other way.

Also it is hard to tell in those pictures, do you have a shim under the springs?

I believe there is a shim under the spring & aluminum head. It's a stock engine,14 with 103k & with the idle hours making total 245k!