<VV> Excessively tight rocker adjusting nuts

[chuck mckinley]

I've run into a problem that surely has bitten others of you, and I'm
looking for advice. Specifically, I'm finding that some (not all) of my
rocker arm adjusting nuts (the self-locking kind) are so dang tight on
the rocker stud that when I back them off while adjusting the rockers,
they take the rocker stud with them, i.e. the torque to turn the
adjusting nut exceeds the torque with which the rocker stud is
installed, so the stud turns rather than the nut. I can't figure out if
this is a problem with damaged threads on the rocker stud, the nut, or
both. All the nuts were new about 5-6 years ago when I did an engine
rebuild. I don't remember having this difficulty when I originally put
the engine back together. Could it be a temperature thing? This morning
when I pulled the rockers off (to replace a stripped stud!), it was
about 30F in my garage so all the parts were chilly. I can't imagine
that a few dozen degrees would make a big difference in how tightly a
self-locking nut grabs the stud, but I could be wrong.
	I'm wondering if I could get away with using ordinary nuts on the
rocker studs and double-nutting each stud with a jam nut to hold the
rocker adjustment. I haven't seen any discussion about this, and I don't
want to get into hot water if there's a big flaw in that idea.
	I see by the Clark's catalog tech tips that the adjusting nuts are
supposed to have 5-10 foot-pounds torque to hold a setting. I'm guessing
that my troublesome ones are requiring 35-45 foot-pounds to budge them
at their tightest position on the rocker stud.
	Comments and suggestions would be most welcome, as always.

Chuck McKinley
'63 Monza 900 80hp 3-speed