Valve Spring Help

[BigMacDouble]

Hey there, just joined the forum. I bought a 78 400E I believe completely apart recently . Made it the winter project while the restaurant I run is closed . Finally got to cleaning and installing the head. Valve springs were hammered out and then cleaned but now that it comes to reinstall I'm having some trouble.

I know you can buy spring compressors but up here in Canada land anything you order from Canadian tire or autozone usually takes 3 days to be ready if the order doesn't get cancelled before that. I tried all the tricks i've seen on youtube but either I'm incredibly weak or these springs are alot stronger than mordern auto springs. And the retainers seem to be very picky with how they get seated.

Can't get enough weight behind a socket and don't have clamps deep enough to go around the head.
and zip ties don't fit between the springs when compressed (also pretty dangerous i assume ).

Any advice on how to get these installed without specialty tools that isn't on youtube?
Any beginnner advice welcome as well.
Thanks.

 

[amc49]

I am a king at inventing tools made up of common available cheap stuff to replace specialty tools of all types, and all I can say is that over 50 years working on cars and bikes and watching others says buy the proper tool to do that. You can get valves/springs OUT cheaply but NOT IN correctly without damage. You must have limits to stop the spring collapsing so far or you tear up the seal or kill the spring by overcollapsing it and the first indicator of that will be when you drop a valve while running.

 

[amc49]

If you luck out to have retainer the proper OD one could maybe get a larger C-clamp combined with correct OD short piece of PVC plumbing pipe or fitting with a wide notch partially cut in the side to access the cotters. I wouldn't want to do a 4 valve head like that but you don't have a lot of valves there. Using tweezers or small needlenose and grease on cotters to fold them in place will help.

 

[BigMacDouble]

I am a king at inventing tools made up of common available cheap stuff to replace specialty tools of all types, and all I can say is that over 50 years working on cars and bikes and watching others says buy the proper tool to do that. You can get valves/springs OUT cheaply but NOT IN correctly without damage. You must have limits to stop the spring collapsing so far or you tear up the seal or kill the spring by overcollapsing it and the first indicator of that will be when you drop a valve while running.

Messed around a bit with a bigger clamp and decided to take your advice. compression tool is much easier to deal with haha

Thank you!