i turned my starwheel this evening. i marked the wheel itself on the front side to reference how many turns i've made. i used my fingers to turn it. the flathead screw driver just became a PITA to use. i thought the wheel was really that hard to turn, but it turned easily with my fingers. anyhow i only made a half turn for now cuz i just wanted to see when it becomes a noticeable mod. it seemed to feel a little more responsive on the low end and i can understand why. but one thing i was curious about is, can you lose top end (high rpm) power when the starwheel is turned in/spring tension is lower? i can recall, after shifting into 3rd and accelerating, seeing my tach up around 2900rpm. i've never seen it go that high but don't think i've ever let it get that high when shifting before now.

i was also thinking about removing the nylon washer under the rubber diaphragm to see if that's a noticeable difference as well. i know some guys shave it and some remove it altogether. any opinions / advice / thoughts are welcome to be discussed.

 

Heard of people shaveing the washer too. Also removeing the whole starwheel as well

 

Depending on your pin, yes you can go too far. If it gets so low that it "over centers", meaning the cut in the pin starts to ramp back out the the O.D. of the pin, it will defuel. It can happen if it is too tight as well, and it the spring bottoms out before the deepest part of the power pin gets down the the smaller control pin.

Put some grease on it and test drive to see where it is riding.

 

grind it deeper and pull the washer out

 

i can see where the pin has been riding since i turned it to the deep portion of it. it's got plenty of brown crap on it from something which really worries me, but i've been told to not worry about it. i probably have about an 1/8" or so of travel i could use up. i should've taken a picture or dimension for a reference to see just how much of a difference a 1/2 turn of the starwheel would make.

 

The best substitute I've seen posted for the nylon washer is an o-ring. Thick enough to keep the pin from over centering, but thin enough to get you full travel.

If you do your own custom grind you can make it so you don't need any washer.

 

are you talking the OD of the o-ring being small enough to pass through the opening but not too small that it would cause the pin to "fall" out of center? is that what captain chrysler is getting at? i think it was mr. jim lane who used 2 o-rings. i've got an assorted o-ring set in the garage i could play around with. i really doubt i'd ever grind on my stock pin though cuz i don't have a spare to replace it with if i screw up.

 

No, an o-ring that fits the pin tightly.

 

ahhh ok. i understand that. the washer is just a depth limiter right?

 

Yep.

 

so would my thinking be logical if i were to take a dimension from the top of the wear mark to the larger shaft of the pin and use that dimension as washer or o-ring thickness to get the right amount of depth? i know i've read that the pin can't be pushed far enough down to do any damage anyhow, but some how i think it's possible for it to be pushed too far if you have really low spring tension (or no spring at all) or if your boost pressure is really pushing down on the diaphragm above it.

 

Exactly!

 

sweet! so the starwheel adjustment does have somewhat of an effect on depth also. but as long as the o-ring or washer is present, there should be no chance of damage occurring. thanks again dave!

 

You can set the star wheel too high, wind up with the spring stacked solid and not get full travel. But that won't damage anything.

 

how do you adjust your starwheel