Valve spring compressor

[eben80]

In Afrikaans we have a saying: "'n Boer maak 'n plan." Which means, "A farmer makes a plan when he has an unusual problem."

Some of you might now that I'm South African who lived in London for 7 years and now moved to Slovakia 6 months ago.

Everything is great. Except I'm still struggling a bit to communicate, especially with technical things.
Other thing, there are no(or I cant find them), tool shops or Halfords type places that you can go browse for what you want.

I've had the head off the 126 for a bit of a clean-up and to re-lap the valves. I removed the retainers by compressing the spring with a piece of tubing which worked. But of course I needed to get them back on again afterwards.

So... I had to make a plan. Went to the builders' warehouse and bought a cheap EUR7 clamp:


Used a HSS drill and some files to convert it into a valve spring compressor:


Took just enough off to make space to refit the retainers and took the sharp edges off:


Probably not as easy as a proper tool but I didn't have any issues and it didn't slip once(best to be careful though)





& Bob's your Uncle  

Thought I'd share in case anyone else ever has the same situation.

[GTMaster]

Very good  I had the chance to use the proper tool but needed two of us to hold it down since we couldn't secure the 'head to the bench

[eben80]

LOL see this is an improvement then. Its a one-man jobby. You just screw in the compress the spring and it stays there.

[GTMaster]

Yeah, the proper tool only works if you secure the 'head down or use it while the 'head is still secured to the cylinder block. This is a neat idea