Went to disassemble the head yesterday and couldn't find a valve spring compressor to fit the XS head. I know I had one at one time... musta' loaned it out and forgot about it. Damnit! Gotta quit doin' that. So... not wanting to hunt all over town or wait for one shipped to me, I decided to make one out of this...
I'm a pack rat. Too many of these buckets laying around.
I cut and slotted two 3/4" tubes and welded them to a 1/4 by 1" flat bar.
Welded the nut for an acme screw (no idea where it came from, an old saw I think) on one end.
Cut the rubber handle off the screw and welded a T handle on.
Welded a 1/4" drill bit to the other end and cut it off at 1"
.
Found a tube that was the same size as the valve springs and welded on three 1/16" allen wrenches. Cut them off at about 1/2".
Cut the sides out of the tube.
Welded the washer from the acme screw on top.
Drilled a wooden dowel to fit the other end, cleaned it all up and painted it and this is what I ended up with.
Worked perfectly!
Took about 2 hrs to make. It would have been easier to just order one, but I enjoy any chance I get to fire up the ol' TIG welder. Since I'm retired, I don't worry about the time spent, but that means I'm on a fixed budget. So, for a total cost of $0.00, I'm tickled pink.
The bad news is that once I got the valves out, I found some pitting on both exhaust valve faces. Crap
Jim.