Facing tappet adjustment screws

The heads of the tappet screws on my VW baywindow with hydraulic lifters are some what hammered and won’t easily adjust.
I could replace at £5 each… or a could give them a spin in the lathe… any downside ?

Are the tops soft ? Maybe get away with a carbide tool ??

8 x £5 = £40, why bother?

Robert Butler

Well mostly because 8 x £5 = £40. I’ll have a play suspect I’ll end up ordering a set

I would expect them to be hardened ! Noel

Yes they will be hardened. Maybe spin and dress with a diamond file? But if they are case hardened, you might go through the hard layer to the soft material below if too much metal is removed.

Hydraulic lifters (cam followers) are self adjusting, unless they have collapsed and are therefore noisy in which case you buy new lifters.

Hi Dave,

They generally are, and VW described them as such. The reality is though they need a tickle here and there. I had one that had unwound so I’ve started a reset.

From what I’ve found they seem to have had a hard life and I can’t get the preload on as they slide off the valve tip from the wear (hammer!) patterns

Nick,

Is the rocket arm wobbly then? It should be impossible to slide off the valve stem unless either the rocker or rocker shaft has a lot of wear.

It’s lightly spring loaded to hold position on the rocker arm. Because the tip is chewed up it’s pushing the rocker across as you preload it. Hence the desire to clean it up.

These are go faster parts, but the write up does illustrate the problem.

Interesting, mines a type 4 2.0l but I suspect the issue is the same

At 20 Quid for a set of 8 adjuster screws from the Cool Air VW Specialists website I think I would just buy new ones. In fact I would pay the 40 Quid and get the elephant foot type with the captive ball bearing with a flat ground on it.

Do away with the problem completely - put a Subaru engine in it !

Nigel B.