51 es2 rocker oil feed

It has been a while since I have had my 1950 ES 2 rockers apart but as I recall the oil path takes the oil through the shafts and out the holes in the ball ends and into the cups on the pushrods.              

I have read of various " cures " of what some believe to be " over oiling " - perhaps someone plugged the hole for this reason ?

How did you test for a blockage? It seems to me that the oil way in the rocker arm must have at least one 90° bend. If a wire is inserted in the hole in the ball end it will fairly quickly come up against what will feel like a hard stop. How far can you insert a wire before encountering the obstruction? My apologies if you have done this already but have you tried blowing through the ball end to confirm an obstruction (maybe use a length of plastic tubing pushed over the ball)?

Cheers, Ian McD

The ball end should have a hole in it, right?  If you remove the rocker from the shaft and you blow in the ball end with an air gun, you should get air coming out of the drilling in the rocker/shaft bushing, right?

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Mike

Yes you are correct. There should be no restriction even at low pressure.

Two possible causes are foreign matter in the drilled hole between the ball end and the spindle or secondly as I found today when checking a rocker spindle, a previous owner had inserted the ball end in incorrectly.

The hole in the stem of the ball end was not correctly lined up with the drilling to the spindle. After reinserting the ball end correctly towards the spindle in line with the drilling there was no restriction when oil was pumped into the hole in the ball end.