Make Your Own Valve Spring Compressor

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after a lot of stuffing around i decided to post a thread about finding a valve spring compressor that didnt require the head to be taken off, there arent many tools that let you do this, but Cubes came to my rescue. i got the design from Cubes, which got the pics he showed off sky30. the discussion can be found here: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...p;#entry3027232

all up this cost me around $25 to make, rather than spending $150+ on a proper valve spring compressor specifically designed for doing them while the head is on. every other tool out there is either for overhead valve springs, or the big G clamp ones for while the head is off.

NOTE: for using this tool you will need to compress the combustion chamber while the piston is at TDC. also, make sure the car is in either neutral (manual) or park (auto) as the compressed air may turn the engine.

DISCLAIMER: use this tool at your own risk, i take no blame for anything that stuffs up etc etc.

what you'll need (i got everything at bunnings)

1x length of square hollow piece of steel ~ 1m long = $5

1x length of flat steel (preferebly thicker so it has more compressive strength): $5

pack of nuts and bolts. i used 10mm bolts (8mm thread). $5

1x small extension. i used a 3/8.

1x deep socket (one thats big enough not to slip inside the valve chamber.

tools:

drill with something bigger than an 8mm drill bit

grinder

welder or take to an exhaust shop = $5

1. cut the lengths of steel into 3 bits then drill holes:

1x 70mm (attaches to the lever/extension) - drill a hole at both ends of this piece.

1x 55mm (base of T piece) - drill holes spaced at around 38mm (best thing would be to measure the distance between the bolts on your cam brackets

incase they are different on other series).

1x ~90mm (this is the long arm of the T piece).

2. get the T piece welded together with the 55mm piece being the base, and the 90mm piece getting welded right in the middle of the 2 holes that you drilled (the hole that you drilled in the 90mm piece should be on the opposite end of the weld).

3. drill a hole into the small extension. going straight across, get it as centred as you can (very important), what i did to make it easier to get it centred was grinding opposite sides flat then centre punching it. the reason i used a small extension was so i could add more extensions to the end of it if i needed to.

when you've finished drilling, get the grinder, put the extension into a vice (gripping the body of it) then grind out in between the holes, like this:

4. get your deep socket and grind out the centre of it like this:

(this makes it possible to reach in with a magnet or long nose pliers to take the pin out of the valve)

5. get the hollow square piece of steel and drill a hole at the very end of it for the T piece to attach to. also grind out around 30-40mm into the piece from the same end so you have a larger angle to leverage, like this:

6. put it all together with the t piece at the end of it.

7. what you'll need to do now is to either:

1 - mark out each hole by lining it up with the tool bolted to the mounts then drilling the exact number of holes you'll need, OR

2 - drill a hole every 10mm or so so you're not stuffing around if you need to drill an extra hole later.

each one is fine, except you might weaken the square metal piece depending on how thick the one you bought is.