Need help installing vavle springs
 

I hope that I am missing something and yall can fix me up.

I just finished puttin springs on #1 and it kinda sucked.

The people I have talked to say it is no big deal, and I am sure it isnt but I am haveing a horrible time getting the keepers off, and an even worse time getting them back on.

I have my tool from sourceautomotive and it really is a nice peice, I am very happy with it. But I am having to rotate the motor myself and get up to check for TDC cause I have no help tonight and thise is slowing my down and adding to my frustration.

My "pencil" magnet is larger than a pencil and wont get to the keepers, and I have tried magnetic screwdrivers but it took me about 45 minutes just to get springs on #1 cause they dont have enough pull to em.

Will a better magnet help me? Or do I just have to face the fact that this is gona be a fight the whole way?

Sorry if I ranted and thanks for any help.

I had the same problem.Taped a magnet an a jewelers screwdriver,it was able to lift the keepers out.Put a little grease on them when reinstalling to help them stick in place.Also make sure you are compressing the springs far enough.You kinda got to go by feel.Not enough and the keepers are tight ,too much and they don't sit in place when reinstalling.I'm assuming you know to do 1&6,2&5 and 3&4 at the same time.Wait till you do #5 and 6.Wanna talk about a real pain.Make sure to hit all the springs with a deadblow also to insure the keepers are seated.

Thanks for the advice, I am goin to the fridge to see what kinda magnets I got I can tape to something. I have plenty of room to get to them with the compressor, it really is (I think anyway) that I dont have a small enough, strong enough magnet.

I do know how to do 1-6 2-5 and 3-4 but that is good advice and I didnt use any grease on #1 but I will try it on the next ones. I like the idea of usin a deadblow too, I didnt think of that.

Thanks

yep, a good magnet and grease go a long way on spring installs :D

grease grease grease. i used a little screwdriver with a little blob of grease on the end when i worked on my buddys gasser

Will if you did not like #1 you are gonna love #6. Like Lloyd said a good magnet and use grease to hold them for reassembly. Your sticks left today. Tim

Thanks for the advice guys, and thanks for the update Tim.

Did you get them on?

No, I was hot and getting frustraited so I figured it best to leave them for another day. I am in no hurry since I have no injectros at the moment, they shipped out yesterday, so hopefully I will have them by friday.

But, I do have a question and a few comments.

On the box it says the springs are sportsman springs and for 98.5-2007 IIRC.
But I did notice the springs are about a half inch shorter than the stockers. I assume this is normal but can anyone comment on this???

And for me it would be hard to tell much benefit form valve springs but I can say that the F1s are definately stiffer. I can barely budge the F1s with my thumb and index finger but I could compress the stockers quite a bit.

I also want to get some pics of my stockers up and see if anyone can tell if they were starting to tuelip(spelling?) or not.

I will not be able to work in my truck tonight but I plan on finishing the springs Thursday night, no matter how long it takes.

The springs are shorter than the stock springs because they have less coils to make clearence for higher lift cams. The job changing valve springs will get easier and quicker as you do a few. After doing #1 #6 is next and the hardest one. The trick is putting a dab of grease on the valve stem and only compress the springs enough to get the retainer clips on. Get you a non magnetic tool like a piece of plastic or aluminum to press the clips to the stem. I used a magnetized screw driver to remove the clips.

Well I can only add one more piece of advice because evryone else beat me to it and stole all of my good tricks I learned from my valve job. I hooked all of the extensions I had together and ran them up by the turbo and rested the ratchet on the battery so you can turn the engine and check TDC at the same time.

Thanks for all the help guys.

I found out earlier that I had to be in at work early tomorrow so I did NOT finish my springs tonight.
I did however get number 6 done and I have the motor back to TDC, and I am ready to go for number 5.

It took me between 1.5-2 hours to get number 6, it was awful. Not so much that it was so far back, though that didnt help, but its just getting the keepers out, and then its just as bad to get them back in. This is turning out to be more frustrating that I would of expected, but it really all boils down to my inexperience and not having the proper tools, or tool. I think if I had a good magnet to work with it would make a lot of diff but I havent found the right one yet.

Anyway, I hope to have her up and runnin by Sunday and thought I would throw and update out.

I got em in and once I figured out how to make it work I got the last 4 cylinders done quicker than the first 2.

I honestly think my spring compressor was not compressing the springs far enough. I put my wrench back on the nut on the spring compressor and used it as a pry bar to open the gap between the valve stem and the spring and the keepers basically popped out and fell back in. I think I could do a set, with the motor open in 1-2 hours now. It is tedious but not bad at all once I figured it out.

My magnet was plenty strong, there just wasnt enough room, and I didnt need any grease to help to put em back in either.

Thanks so much for the help, if I dont have to work too late tomorrow I am gona try to get injectors in and adjust my valves and get the ol girl back on the road.

Glad to see you got the springs installed ok. Next time it shouldn't take but about a hour and a half[laugh]

Yeah, the last 4 pistons were cake, I got call source Monday and see what the deal is. I talked with a buddy of mine thats a pretty good mechanic and he said it sounded to him that it wasnt compressing far enough.