Posted by A Sound Tinker on March 08, 2004 at 12:47:02:
In Reply to: Re: Re: New Article on Valve Linkages posted by Rick Denney on March 08, 2004 at 11:42:39:
Who needs a drill press or lathe; given a dremel one can.... well the sentence practically writes its own ending. As a more ambitious project you could affect the lever length on the only thing that ever wears out an a properly maintained rotary valve itself. (OK, almost the only thing that ever wears out) The bearing of the valve itself is worn far more by the lateral force on the shaft(as opposed to the torsional force rotating the valve) applied as a function of the distance between the push arm bearing and (mainly) the top valve bearing. With an ambitious tinker and a Dremel (were I less of a man (or more imbued with common sense)I'd stoop to a lathe for this one) one could enlarge the piece on the top on the shaft, mount the ball stud upside down so that it barely cleared the stops (or make it even even lower on the other side with a lot of rewhickering) and hence have a huge reduction in the lever arm length leading to the primary source of wear leading to rotor noises and eventually rotor dragging. "Graciously phrased..." Admittedly, if one oils the things regularly they last a very long time anyway, but "no problem too nonexistant to be solved through ambitions tinkering"
"Unwilling to formally sign this for fear of fire damage"