Rocker shaft torque?

[Matt85]

Hi, I'm in the process of putting a new head gasket on my fordson. And I'm getting ready to bolt everything back together. The problem is that I can't find what the rocker shaft bolts should be torqued to. I checked everywhere and I can't find anything on what the torque should be. Does anybody know what they should be torqued to?

[oehrick]

Hi Matt for a Diesel the manual shows

Cylinder head bolts marked 100 = 85-90 ft lbs
Cylinder head bolts marked " Bees, Newall High Tensile or Ribe" = 75-80 ft lbs

But I take it they may not be combined head and rocker shaft bolts 'cos I can't see a figure for them mentioned either, as they note tab washers in the text torque them to an appropriate amount for that sized bolt, give or take a little they are opposing the spring force + some of the compression not the ignition kick.

For Whitworth, torque till the head comes off then back off 1/4 turn is a good rule of thumb, for SAE fine you can probably afford to back off 1/2 turn

Neither I nor the forum owners accept any responsibility if you take this advice

More seriously, what are they 1/4"ish ? (long while since I looked under the cover!) probably as much torque as you can put on with a 6" wrench or thereabouts

HTH

[Matt85]

I believe the rocker arm bolts are 3/8ths.

[Brian]

It is not a lot of help but we ex-Fordson mechanics had a torque wrench built into our arms for jobs like that! In fact the only bolts we used one on were head bolts, main bearing bolts, bigend bolts and flywheel bolts. All the rest were done by "feel".

Use a normal ring spanner, not a socket and long bar, and pull them down tight. Go over them a couple of times as you do it and you will not be far out.

In the headings on this forum is a link to a site that will give you information on torque specifications for different bolt sizes which may help.

[Matt85]

Thanks everybody for the help. I got it up and running last week. It was my first time ever putting a headgasket on. I must say it wasn't too hard of a job. I just made sure to take my time and keep everything clean and organized. It took about six hours to do. Some of the time was spent cleaning all the dirt and grease out of the bolt holes.

[oehrick]

Congrats !

Did you end up using a torque figure for the rocker bolts or 'fitters wrist' as suggested by Brian ?

[Matt85]

I never found a torque figure. I just tightened the rocker bolts by feel.