When I found the #6 intake rocker arm was the cause of my tapping noise, I initially tightened it down thinking the nut had worked loose. I still had a tap, so I measured and found the stud had pulled up a tad and seem to have overtightened it because now the fulcrum is stuck on the positive stop stud. I tried some two arm gear pullers I have in my workbench, but they angle weirdly because of the shape of the rocker arm, and the drive bolt slides off the stud before I can get any leverage. Does anyone have experience with a stuck fulcrum and how to get it to break loose?
stock small block stuff, is pressed in. You can get a stud puller to remove the one that backed out, and probably “gently” Beat another one in place-
I like this one- you can probably get it at the local parts store.
What an ordeal! Others would have had this done in an afternoon, but I found numerous ways to make my life more difficult on this problem. I got the rocker arm and fulcrum to pull loose from the positive stop wedge using a three-arm gear puller and then decided to try to reseat it and hope for the best. Well, the stud didn’t seat, but it did bend slightly. Pulling it out seemed like an easy task using a socket, washers and the stud nut, until the threads on the stud started to fail. I seem to have lost my nutcracker in the move a few years ago, so after buying a new one and getting the nut back off, I was going crazy trying to get something that would thread properly and get a decent grip.The puller shown above works on threaded studs, but wasn’t going to work on my press in stud, but I did finally find a press in stud puller and five minutes later the stud was out. I also found out it is one of the studs that penetrates the water jacket, but fortunately the radiator cap was still on so the system held most of the water until I could drain it down below head level. Tomorrow I will ice the new 3/8” adjustable stud, heat up the stud boss with a torch, and see if a 2lb brass ‘hand press’ will get it seated. I have Loctite for the stud shaft, so I was prepped in case it was a stud that went into the cooling jacket.
Given you had the wherewithal to extract the old stud you’re probably aware of this but just in case I’ll offer the following in lieu of going to screw in studs:
- Install the new stud
- Cross drill the stud boss and through the new stud.
- Drive in steel roll pin
This can be done without removing the heads assuming you’ve got sufficient drill access.
Numerous stud pinning kits out there.
I had considered pinning if I was able to get the original stud pressed back in and level with the rest. There are stories from early racing years that this was common practice before screw in studs became the norm. Next rebuild, and hopefully, given my age and stage, when my son inherits the car, the head refresh will include screw in studs. Hindsight.