[cobalt327]

Originally Posted by tquinn83

The pushrod is a summit piece with welded tips. It's straight a an arrow and am 100% sure it was the right length when it went in. It has obvious wear on the rocker end, as it is much flatter than it ought to be. The tip hasn't come out.

If the stud is pressed in and is pulling out of the head, you might get a hammered type of "wear" like that. Or if the lifter were collapsed or bottomed out from being incorrectly adjusted and the rocker/lifter hammered hell out of it. But I wouldn't expect the wear to be one just on one end.

[engineczar]

That doesn't make much sense then. If the balls on each end are still there then it's really not possible for the pushrod to be 1/4 short as the balls are right around that size.

[tresi]

So I'm assuming that the ball is nearly worn away? If this is so I would look for other damage. As suggested before look for a rocker stud pulling out or a cam/ lifter problem. I'm assuming the rocker arm cup is damaged too. If you don't find other damage the only thing that comes to mind is that either the rocker arm cup or the pushrod ball failed to get hardened properly.
I've seem many cams go flat without tearing up the pushrod. I thinking there is some sort of manufacturing defect here.

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

Originally Posted by engineczar

That doesn't make much sense then. If the balls on each end are still there then it's really not possible for the pushrod to be 1/4 short as the balls are right around that size.

Unless,, the pushrod was short when installed and nobody caught it.. Like maybe a Buick pushrod (very similar) got thrown in the bin at manufacture, then packaged and sold that way.

Stranger things have happened. Used to see different pushrod lengths in 429-460 Fords quite a few times.

[tquinn83]

I just checked to see how much meat there is on the good pushrod with a paper clip. it has a good 1/2" of the thick wall so it could very well be a 1/4" of just wearing down

[tresi]

Originally Posted by tquinn83

I just checked to see how much meat there is on the good pushrod with a paper clip. it has a good 1/2" of the thick wall so it could very well be a 1/4" of just wearing down

We've already established he has a ball end pushrod. Even if the ball was a solid ball bearing that's only 5/16 of an inch.

[tquinn83]

Well the stud hasn't come out and the rocker cup only has one little scratch maybe .010" deep. So like tresi stated, it looks like a manufacturer defect. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. But then again women don't make sense to me either...

[engineczar]

That doesn't make much sense then. If the balls on each end are still there then it's really not possible for the pushrod to be 1/4 short as the balls are right around that size.

[tquinn83]

Well they're not really balls. I wish I had a picture of them. It's a 5/16 diameter tube and the majority of the length is maybe a .080" wall. But then the ends are about 1/2" of solid metal with the oil hole drilled in. So the rod DOES HAVE 1/4" of wear on one end. There's no question about that. I'm concerned with what caused all the wear

[engineczar]

So have you been able to determine which end wore, the lifter end or the rockerarm end?

[tquinn83]

It was the rocker end, the lifter end has zero wear

[engineczar]

How does the cup in the rockerarm look?

[gearheadslife]

I'd say that rocker wasn't getting oil and the ball/rocker cup was running dry... is the oil hole in said p/r clogged? thats the only way you'd wear 1/4" off the ball end.. and frankly I'm surprized the p/r didn't drill through the rocker..

[tquinn83]

The rocker arm cup has one scratch going across it. It's pretty shallow, probably no deeper than .010-.015" and the oil passage in the pushrod was clear as day

[tresi]

So it's a 3 piece pushrod, a tube with nearly solid ends pressed in. If it was oiling I say 1 end didn't get hardened. I would replace that rocker arm the .10" is enough to cause problems. I would at least pull that lifter out ans look at the bottom of the lifter and the cam lobe. Won't cost you nothing to check.