Hitchcocks Forum

Hi, been reassembling and adjusting the valve lifter mechanism that is attached to the tappet cover door. With exhaust rocker cover off and by moving the engine end lever by hand I can see it actually works and does 'lift' the valve quite a bit but when connected to the cable and trying to operate by using the mechanism provided on the handle bar a very different story and really just doesn't work as insufficient leverage provided by the mechanism.

Is there a fix for this, maybe retrofitting an old fashioned valve lifter lever? Shame as it does work at the engine end with a bit of pressure but that little plastic thing on the handle bars is not man enough to compress the valve spring!

The little plastic thing is definitely not up to the job with the valve lifter, it's probably fine with the decompressor valve in an E/S 4 speed Bullet or a Sixty-5.

I gather people have had success with the old-fashioned handlebar lever. Failing that, it is possible to modify the 500 AVL cylinder head to take the older Bullet's decompressor valve.

A.

Hello there. I used to own an AVL 500 and had the same valve lifter problem. I found that by applying pressure on that plastic lever WHILST turning the engine over on the kickstart, the lifter worked (by holding the valve open after the engine had done the initial opening).
Worked ok for me over several years’ ownership ...

Thankyou for the images Adrian, like the look of the conversation and maybe one day...........!

And thankyou PO51UHD, I was just about to post the same thing! Spent a bit of time last night trying to set this up as best I could by playing about with moving the arm on the spline and adjusting the cable to attempt to get maximum lift from the wee cam, all to no avail! Until I realised exactly what you said and instant result!

I must have been doing it wrong all along, if you use the plastic lever to initially lift the top hat so it is tight against the pushrod and as you kick over it lifts the valve as the pressure is removed from the valve spring and the plastic lever just pops into a fully valve lifted position.
Great for doing a few turn overs to charge fuel etc but still not great for nudging past TDC for fist kick as both valves are closed and it can't lift the valve when you need it (I have removed the starter) .

Still I think a combination of the above to get it ready and Bullet Whisperer's proven AVL starting technique for the actual first swing will do the job.