Mini valve spring tester

[pablo]

Gonna start a new topic on the B&D stone holders. Should have done it in the first place

[slracer]

Hi all, Spent some time with parts and plans and put together a home-made mini spring tester today. Actually, didn't do final assembly, hope to finish that tomorrow. I told you about the brake cylinder above. My local CarQuest parts guy had a 160psi gauge with a 2-1/2 inch face and a few fittings which I added to a couple of 1/4-20 bolts, nuts and washers. I wanted the rubber boots on the cylinder to not be squeezed when I was testing so drilled and tapped the ends of the metal pistons for the 1/4 bolts. This will provide the standoff needed. On one end, I added a 1-1/2 D fender washer (smaller hole) to provide a platform for the spring (my small engine doesn't need larger) and a 3/4 D washer under it for added stiffness (probably not necessary). The fittings adapted the 1/4 NPT gauge to the brake line threads so everything goes together. The pic below shows the assembly as it will appear when finished. Total cost including the $12 gauge and a new can of Dot 4 fluid was about $30. A cheaper gauge and having the fluid (don't need it for my mechanical bike brakes) would have reduced the cost to under $25. I'm already thinking about replacing the washers with a thicker piece of AL sheet to provide an easier reference for measuring like RacePumper shows above. I'll let you know how it works!

Doug

[RACEPUMPER]

Nice work Doug, keep us posted!!

Jim

[msj442]

i just thought i would add that i had one of those spring testers shown ealier and machined an arbor press and a few other attachments to have the tester fit right in the press. used a starrett ruler that was marked in .050 increments to measure installed height and coil bind. it served me for 7 yrs until i sold it on ebay. for way more that i had into it. i figure for about 80 bucks you can have a very professional shop oriented spring tester.

[Greg]

The posts in this thread gave me some inspiration to update my spring tester. I made it quite a while back using an arbor press and a mini spring tester.

I've been hoarding from ebay and bought a really nice digital pressure gauge and a job lot of digital calipers.

I spent a few hours tonight fitting everything up, I pulled the gauge apart and extended the wiring from the sensor so I could mount it directly to the cylinder from the mini tester. I cut down the calipers and welded them directly to the spring pads.

The gauge is brilliant, I have it set to read in psi which gives me lbs with the 1 square inch cylinder. It reads in 1 lb increments and stores the peak reading. I'm not sure what they are worth new but they may be worth a look, I paid $100 from ebay, the calipers were $10 a pair.

I'd rate it better than a rimac one I used to use and a lot cheaper.

Photo hopefully below:

[bruce]

NICE!

[msj442]

hey greg got a link for the gauge you used? its really close to what i used in the past but better!! now i want to build another one, cuz i miss it after selling it. i use one of those proform ones from summit that is the same darn thing just a different kind of press attachment. its a ripoff in my opinion.

max

[Greg]

I just found the gauge for sale new and it's pretty dear, US$495. it would be worth keeping an eye on ebay or surplus stores I suppose.

Website for the gauge

[msj442]

ok greg. this one of the coolest ideas ive ran across. so cool i had to go out and update mine. sorry i copied you but had to do it. man this is sweet.

thanks , max

[Greg]

:laugh: you're welcome! I knew there was a good use for Chinese verniers, it just took a while to work out what it was.

I made a spring height checking setup for Nissan RB engines with another pair, makes it really simple to check the installed heights on the springs in these shim bucket heads. I machined a cutout in a retainer and mounted the calipers directly to it. I can zero the calipers, install the retainer and take a direct measurement.

[49-1183904562]

Well I have been playing around trying to improve in my setup have the little setup and the guage is so small I did not find it accurate enough, but digital was to much money. Well i found these at Surplus Center 0-600 psi 5psi increment but they are 6" diameter so you can easily split the increment and repeat +-2.5 psi. So on to rebuilding my setup, Enco 1ton arbor press $15 mini spring tester $39 now new gauge $19.99 so with some Chinese digital quill setup, some scrap to build a base I should be into a nice tester for under $150 us.

Rick

[jfholm]

Wow, nice find Rick!

John