Non Rotating Tappet Fix

[dieseldave]

Had a problem with the intake tappet not rotating.

Due to a hunch that the Tappet Guide was out of square,I lossened the clamp on the Tappet guide and rotated the guide about 90 degrees.    Tappet is now rotating freely.  Try it,nothing to loose!

[BigGreen]

I had both intake's not rotating and this solved the problem.
Thanks

[SteveU.]

Hello,

Good tip. DYI. And simple.

I,m curious; would you be willing to report what brands of engines this occured on?

Thank you,
SteveU.

[captfred]

Had two that wouldn't rotate, even after rotating the collars - had the faces ground true to the stem- now i've 2 sets of whirling dirvish tappets - everyone's happy.

Fred

[TheSitRep]

My intake was not rotating. I got to thinking that the sleeve was sitting slightly askew. I shimmed the side near the injector pump about .070 an voila.

[Petersbpus]

.070 is a bunch, if the guide (or something is that far out you need to figure out just where the real problem lies and  fix it!
A shimming like that will make the tappet face ride cockeyed on the cam.
use a real thin (maybe .002) feeler guage and check arround between the cam lobe and tappet face in all positions of rotatoin and see what you can see.
Bob

[zacksstacks]

Hmmm,

I found my tappet faces were out of square by about .008" on the exhaust and .002" on the intake. The intake would rotate with fiddling the guide, but the exhaust would rotate only a bit and then slip back no matter what. Once the faces were trued they both rotate like mad!

[MacGyver]

Hmmm,

I found my tappet faces were out of square by about .008" on the exhaust and .002" on the intake. The intake would rotate with fiddling the guide, but the exhaust would rotate only a bit and then slip back no matter what. Once the faces were trued they both rotate like mad!

Yeah, that's how mine were too. The tappet faces were WAY out of square.  I was able to fiddle the guides around until one of them would sort of rotate... It would take about 3 seconds to rotate up to the "high side" then quickly spin 180 degrees back to the low side and start the slow 180 degree rotation to the high side again. The other one wouldn't rotate at all.  You could give it a little spin by hand and it would immediately rotate back to it's "happy spot" and stay there.

I trued up the tappet faces and they both spin like crazy now.

[12 gauge]

I think most, if not all, of the listeroids tappets are machined, then heat treated which warps them slightly, then installed.  They all need to be chucked in a lathe and checked for runnout, and ground square with a tool post grinder, if needed.  I did this and my tappets have always spun like crazy.  This is a must do on any listeroid.

[matt]

I agree 12 Guage.

Mine were only slightly out of square, so I didn't bother truing them up.
I did, however, spend a lot of time polishing the face and shaft so that everything was as smoth as a baby's bottom.

On the first fire up last Saturday both tappets spin like crazy!!!

I can tell you what a relief it was to see after hearing about all the troubles everyone else has !!


Matt