EW valve springs

[RRinOz]

Upon removing the valve springs on my 1926 EW, I found them bent and distorted. I ordered 4 new ones from LondonMCC and received four barrel shaped springs of slightly thinner wire (0.115" compared to old 0.122") and considerably taller (1.94" compared to 1.7"). Since my original springs are cylindrical I'm wondering whether the new "barrels" are correct. They feel softer but do fit OK.

[Doug]

There were two styles of valve spring used on the 350EW. A barrel shaped one and a conical shaped one. The conical spring used an even lighter gauge wire for a rate of 32lb*inch. Your cylindrical springs look to be on the 'heavy' side.

-Doug

[kev]

  might not be real news to you ....but there is an easy way to test for spring pressure...with normal household equipment..
can use a drill press or something similar and a bathroom weight scale.....if no drill press a bit of timber and some sort of jig to hold....car bumper ...a handy part of the fence....and some sort of way to get even amount of compression....(another short block of wood...??)
very primitive.....but effective...

to sum up..compress the spring with whatever..to where you think would be in service...and read the scale...I do this esp on twins just to be sure the springs are at least the same pressure...

[RRinOz]

Doug, thanks for confirming that my old cylindrical springs are not correct. I have fitted the 4 new barrels to the engine. My doubts were fired up by the 1930 EW Care and Maintenance booklet which appears to show cylindrical valve springs in the cutaway sketch on page 5. Regards, Ralph

'kev, thanks for the tip - I hadn't thought of the drill press. I use the bathroom scales on my 20T hydraulic press - that way I can tweak the spring length with accuracy. Cheers