6cyl.- No Valve Spring Compressor Required
Just redid the valves on my 230ci inline 6 and a very experienced mechanic showed me how to take the springs off. Note: the head was on a bench and not in-chassis.
Take 1/2" drive breaker bar with a 3/4" deep well socket, **** the socket and handle 90 deg. to each other and place open end of socket over the valve stem on top of the spring seat. User a hammer and firmly whack the top of the socket/breaker bar. This momentarily compresses the spring causing the keepers to pop right out. The socket also captures them and keeps them from getting lost. This method works quite well and is very fast. I would not do this in-chassis. Be sure to use a deep well socket to avoid banging up the valve end with the interior of the socket.
To put the keepers back in, place a small block of wood under the head of the valve to keep it from slding out, install seals, spring and seat. Now, place the keepers loosely in the little grooves where they are going to go. Take a pair of channel locks or some thing similar and carefully place the handles crossways on the spring seat and with your own weight, push the springs down slowly until the keepers drop right into their slots. If only one goes in, you need to rock your channel locks a little and compress more to the side of the loose keeper to allow the other keeper to fall into place. Then gently with a piece of wood, tap the end of the valve stem to compress the spring a couple of times to ensure the keepers are secure.
These methods are backyard methods, but will remove all the valves in about 10 min. and can reistall them in about 15min. and you don't have to buy a $50. tool to do it. Note: This method was not tried on any other type of engine.
