Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 broken rocker bolt

Wheeling all the way....be careful at corners & turns,it might keep on going straight

I can see why you were invaluable on last years Treffen .

Im back on the road. It took me a long time to fit the rolling rocker kit though.
firstly, the studs are on very securely. After failing with the two nut trick, I had to try a number of different stud extractors. Eventually a collet style one worked but it ruined the old stud's top threading.

a second challenging part is creating clearence for the push rods. Unfortunately the geometry is slightly different for the rollers. On both the intake rods I had to file away around 2mm of aluminium from the top hole on the heads so as to gain sufficient clearence. Otherwise the conrod would bash the top of the hole which has a slight lip.
this is problematic because tiny bits of aluminium will get into the engine. I used grease to get most of it. Fortunately the oil system is designed so that oil drips from the head down to the cam chest and then back to the tank. Then back through the filter before the engine again. so it should avoid the main bearings.
The instructions from s&s are very good.
the kit comes with new head gaskets and loctite.
they should give more than 5ml of loctite.

The noise is definitely quiter with these roller rockers.
you have to be careful to let the tappets settle between cylinders.

So I recommend having extra loctite 262 and a good stud extractor before attempting.

I have just suffered the same failure, a broken rocker bolt. And this is after having had a strip down to replace the head gaskets. I have never heard of any other engine breaking rocker bolts. How can this happen on such low mileage engines, or any engine? This is surely not a highly stressed component. The first engine on my car lasted 2000 miles and dropped a valve. The current engine has only done 11000 miles. Broken valve, blown gaskets, broken stud. Engines were built better than this 80 years ago!

The above is the old tool I used to remove the rocker studs AFTER heating them with a propane torch to soften the loctite.

Then I installed the new longer studs for the roller rockers with this tool. I had to modify the threaded shaft on the end to make it rounded so I could remove the tool after torquing without removing the new stud too.




If you do not round this end it will stick on the new stud.

I plugged the pushrod tubes full of lithium grease laden paper towels before grinding the openings large enough for a non interference fit for the pushrods. Not much has to be removed and if you have a partner with a vacuum sucking while you are grinding it goes well.

Do all of the above with the spark plugs loosened or removed so there will be no compression so you can turn the engine over by hand looking for interference.

The stud extractor I have can be used to fit the rocker studs as well as remove them. No thread damage or slip in either direction and you can torque the stud in. It's just a cam and roller type extractor, similar to your top photo I would say.

For the roller rockers you need longer studs so the old ones are useless and in the way.