question about swivel feet adjusters

[erwinsm]

Bought Scat swivel adjusters for my stock valvetrain-- tried to install these but even with the shims included I have no clearance for adjustment --What gives ??? I really want to try these but it seems that I have to find other way or spacers to be able to use them--Will this screw up my stock geometry ? I thought this would be an easy upgrade but it seems that the head of the adjusters are too big and takes space of the valve and rocker clearance--were these intended for stock rocker arms ? Has anyone used these before and have the same problem ?

[nemobuscaptain]

Same problem. They're sitting on a shelf in my utilty room now.
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[old DKP driver]

swivel feet for what engine?
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V.W.owner since 1967

[Desertbusman]

Swivel foot or swivel ball?
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71 Superbug
71 Westy

[germansupplyscott]

for the porsche swivel foot adjusters you have to remove 0.060" from the underside of the rocker arm to make them work. not sure about the scat ones.
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SL

[erwinsm]

it is a swivel ball with a cupped head--I wish that these suppliers give specifics on installation and application for these !! I cant believe that they cant even mention if it is compatible for stock..I guess these are goin back on the shelf ---unless someone can help me...

[mharney]

Scott has it right.. you have to back-cut the rockers to get them to fit right without stacking an ass-load of shims in there. It's no big deal to do it, but it's not for folks without opposable thumbs.

[rsorak]

I installed the EMPI swivel foots and had to use a bench grinder to remove some metal from the underside of the rocker arm. They have worked fine for
about 7000 miles so far this way.
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Rick '71 Westfalia & '73 Thing

[Amskeptic]

I have the Porsche swivelfoot adjusters. I got some of those ball-in-the-socket adjusters and refused to install them, they were crap. You sooo do not want these things to fail. Grinding the undersides of the rocker arms takes all of a minute each, just stay clear of the oil channel that goes from the pushrod socket to the adjuster end. That .060" grinding dimension is all you get. Don't push it. I have spacers that have been there since 1992, they are not an issue so long as they have generous surface area. A quick-check of the geometry is nice, here's how. Rotate the engine and look at any one rocker arm. As soon as it begins to open, make a little dab o'white-out that wraps around the pulley flange edge so you can see it all the way around if necessary. Rotate the engine until the rocker is as open as it is going to get. Divide the distance by two. Put engine at mid-point. Look at rocker arm's relationship with the valve stem. If the adjuster screw is pointing too down, i.e. points towards the piston instead of up towards the valve, you must increase base shim thickness. Loosen *both* 11mm rocker stand nuts evenly in 1/8th turn increments. As the rocker shaft/arms move away from the head, you will see that the adjuster screw axis tilts back up. Run your mid-point lift check again, because you have also changed the valve lift point by backing off those 11mm rocker stand screws. Once you are exactly parallel at 1/2 lift, stick a feeler blade or two or three between the stands and the head. That is the thickness of the shim you want.

If someone could get an exact degrees from horizontal of the valve guide longitude, we could use a protractor on the edge of the valve cover surface.
Colin
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[mikapen]

This is a little off topic, because I drive a 1987 Vanagon 2.1 Waterboxer. But I have a similar problem. The P.O. installed Scat rockers. I like the 1:1.25 ratio, and I want to keep that. I have been learning about swivel feet, since they are failing.

I think the feet are Scat swivel adjusters - the ball-in-socket crap Colin didn't like. They're 8mm. These adjusters are through-drilled for oiling the balls. The oil passageway receives oil from the rocker through a circumferential groove in the screw. Two of these feet have broken off and one of the adjuster ends that receive the balls is worn @ 1.5 mm. (They are all still in place and adjustable!) So it looks like this oiling idea doesn't work. It also looks like the adjusters are very cheaply made, so maybe the thing to take here is to avoid the cheap stuff. But how do you know when ordering mail-order?

I am concerned about the Scat rockers and their ability even to carry oil to their tips, and if they would even work with solid adjusters or non-Scat adjusters, for that matter.

Do I need to start over with new rockers if I want to use the 1:1.25?

[erwinsm]

Does anyone know if I do grind down the rocker base to use the swivel foot adjuster -will it also mess up the rocker arm geometry ? does anyone manufacture a swivel foot adjuster that can be used on stock rocker arms without modification ? Maybe the Gene berg ones ?

[mharney]

No, they're depth requires that you back-cut sometimes. They will CHANGE your geometry, so you will have to re-set it or you can just live with it if it's not too much. Once they are back-cut you're still close and the nature of the new joint will help reduce shear.

[TWD]

The ones that Berg sent me a few years ago were Porsche. Don't know if they still source them there. At the time, I had decided to use aircooled.net for John's aluminum pushrods. I just had him shorten them for me.

[fido]