Yesterday afternoon I removed the rocker shaft to clean the oil passage ways as a few of the rockers were exhibiting anemic oil flow. I reinstalled the assembly just as it was previously, holes down.

Last night I had a thought while viewing the food channel, that perhaps I may have installed the rocker shaft upside down, and wrong end to, I rechecked the FM for the skinny, and found that indeed the longer center retainer is out of place.

The FM points out a flat spot on the end of the shaft that is to face forward, and up. I did not find or feel a flat spot on the rocker shaft. So help a virgin shaft installer here, do the oil holes point up, and how can I identify the correct forward end of the shaft without the flat spot? Figure 9 illustrating this situation in the FM is not of high enough quality to show this.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

I have seen many shafts, that didn't have the flat. Install the shaft with the oil holes pointing down and toward the valve spring.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Thanks Charrlie.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

If you don't find a flat, then orientate the shaft by means of its rearmost bolt hole, which is larger on the bottom (sitting on the head) than on the top (under the bolt head and washer).

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

FYI... Some of the early shafts did not have the 'dual hole size' rear hole so the "down and towards the valve spring" is a good cross-check.
DD

Gah...thanks, Chrysler! (The claim is made that the flat was eliminated when the shaft was redesigned to make it impossible to install incorrectly )

Wait a sec...if no dual-size rear bolt hole, then how oiling the shaft?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Both the rear holes were large, allowing the oil to pass between the hole and the rear bolt's shank.
As noted, this also allowed for the shaft to be installed any one of 4 different ways... only one of those orientations would allow oil into the rocker arm's passages.
DD

Thinks guys.

As every task I have attempted on this car it has to be done twice, the rocker shaft is not the exception. It now has the oil ports pointing toward the springs, I suspect it will pass more lubricant now.

Now to get the missing long spring for the distributor...

Are there any suppliers still stocking the metal distributer drive gear? All I have seen are the nylon gears

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Nope, the metal distributor pinions are gone-gone-gone. Use nylon, it works fine.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

You can get themhere in Oz if you want.???


For the record on the the head I am doing up at the moment, the rocker shaft has No flat, and same size hole at both ends, top and bottom!

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AP6

The description is "suits Hemi-6;" do they also fit the slant?

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

Yes. The distributors on the 'Hemi 6' and the Slant are interchangeable. So I have been told.

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AP6

A week has passed:

Duster Idiot supplied me with a correct long spring which arrived today. Thanks Rob. I installed it and the distributor this evening, and Sponge Bob Square Trunk is alive. He's ALIVE!

A flash back to sometime last week:
I decided to recheck my timing, valve lash, and vacuum to see if I could get a little better performance, and better idle. I discovered a small vacuum leak from a home made plug, and two valves out of speck on the tight side and one a little lose. (I had set them about 1200 miles ago), and a jittery timing mark at idle.

Back to the present:
I readjusted the lash to 0.012 & 0.022 per Doc, correctly installed the rocker shaft & spacers hopefully now allowing full lubrication to the valve train. Popped in the new governor spring so to speak, distributor, and retimed her. The result is a smother idle, little better vacuum readings, and a much more stable timing mark at idle.

Tomorrow I will perform a road test in the daylight, and give the grandkids from Florida a ride. The poor little devils have been stuck riding in a rented Dodge mini van with no video devices...

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Note to self, post a picture before I do this, cause those are not the kind of odds I make out well on.....

Previous owner had installed my rocker shaft the wrong way. Photo's would not have helped.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC