EDIT : ** PLEASE NOTE THAT OVERFILLING THEM AS I DID IS A BAD IDEA. SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED "NOT STARTING" BECAUSE OF THIS NOW, SO I'VE PUT THIS HERE FOR FUTURE CLEANERS. READ THE WHOLE THREAD TO THE END FIRST. **
When i got my FE3 i was curious about what lurked inside these HLAs, so hammer in hand i went off to our local self help parts yard, and promptly set about abbusing a KL v6 till i extracted a HLA. i thought that because it is made from very hard steel it might shatter when i hit it hard with the hammer, i thought wrong, but after about 10 hits i noticed something rolling away : it had come apart.
with hardly a scratch from all the abuse either!
they consist of 3 pistonic parts two visible, and one inside the smaller visible one, one small circlip to keep the small pistons in, two springs one to push the two smaller pistons apart, and a tiny one to hold the final part, a small steel ball against its seat. the manual says if squishy bin it. i say if squishy dissassemble it clean it and fill it with oil.
HERES HOW :
wrap the side of one with rag or cardboard,grip it on its sides with a pair of multi grips or vise grips, and bring the bottom of it down onto some hardish wood with some force, you are doing it right if it leaves circular marks in the wood. between one and 5 blows the guts of it will spill out, and you will see what i mean. clean with oven spray, or pure lifter cleaner, or whatever else you like, and reassemble carefully full of good oil.
the reason they go squishy is that carbon sludge partially blocks the little valve, and holds it open thus allowing the oil to come and go. the design of the valve is to let oil in ONLY thus feeling hard to touch. with these working, youll pick up 3-4mm of lift from 9.? and eliminate noise from them.
the cleaning takes a long time, but should be worth it. these things are US$15 each here in NZ. thats a lot of cash to replace them all.
mine are all perfect now, and full of series 2000 amsoil. i beleive that the reason the gum up so badly is that the end of the valve is hot and in direct contact with the small piston, NO (or very little) oil flow happens here, and the oil if mineral just burns up. once clean, synthetic is the way to go.(synthetic is always the way to go unless its leaking or burning it)
any comments welcome.
Fred.
When i got my FE3 i was curious about what lurked inside these HLAs, so hammer in hand i went off to our local self help parts yard, and promptly set about abbusing a KL v6 till i extracted a HLA. i thought that because it is made from very hard steel it might shatter when i hit it hard with the hammer, i thought wrong, but after about 10 hits i noticed something rolling away : it had come apart.
with hardly a scratch from all the abuse either!
they consist of 3 pistonic parts two visible, and one inside the smaller visible one, one small circlip to keep the small pistons in, two springs one to push the two smaller pistons apart, and a tiny one to hold the final part, a small steel ball against its seat. the manual says if squishy bin it. i say if squishy dissassemble it clean it and fill it with oil.
HERES HOW :
wrap the side of one with rag or cardboard,grip it on its sides with a pair of multi grips or vise grips, and bring the bottom of it down onto some hardish wood with some force, you are doing it right if it leaves circular marks in the wood. between one and 5 blows the guts of it will spill out, and you will see what i mean. clean with oven spray, or pure lifter cleaner, or whatever else you like, and reassemble carefully full of good oil.
the reason they go squishy is that carbon sludge partially blocks the little valve, and holds it open thus allowing the oil to come and go. the design of the valve is to let oil in ONLY thus feeling hard to touch. with these working, youll pick up 3-4mm of lift from 9.? and eliminate noise from them.
the cleaning takes a long time, but should be worth it. these things are US$15 each here in NZ. thats a lot of cash to replace them all.
mine are all perfect now, and full of series 2000 amsoil. i beleive that the reason the gum up so badly is that the end of the valve is hot and in direct contact with the small piston, NO (or very little) oil flow happens here, and the oil if mineral just burns up. once clean, synthetic is the way to go.(synthetic is always the way to go unless its leaking or burning it)
any comments welcome.
Fred.