I took my tappet retainer off to clean out some gunk around the cam. I disloged one of the tappet alignment yokes in the process. One of my tappet aligning yokes is not going back into place. The front passenger one, its location is circled in below diagram. I goes back into place somewhat, but does not sit flush where it belongs. It does not seem like the retainer will hold it back in its place. Is there a way to set it? can I tap it in place? It seems like it could cause a great deal of problems down the line unless I fix it now.





http://www.jameskowalski.com/Dodge/Parts/1999_BE.pdf


thanks.

 

Did one of your lifters spin a little and cause the retainer to no longer fit? Also, I'm not 100% sure since I haven't pulled these off in awhile, but did you try reversing it? Just trying to give you some ideas as I don't know what you have tried.

 

Okay. I mover the crank a little and forgot that I didn't put the retainer back on.

it isn't reversed because I never took the pushrods off, and the yokes each have two rods going through them.
It seems like maybe the tappet itslf was pushed up my the cam, and know its not going back in place. Let me go take some actual pics now that the rain has stopped.

 

The retainer should fit over the entire tappet. If the tappet is seated against the cam, and the retainer slides over the outside of the tappet, then I'd have to say that it is fully seated.

 

Like turkey said, check to see if the lifter has turned. If it has its not going to go back on.

 

My dumb mistake. There was a little bit of gunk on the retainer and that was keeping it from seating. My lifter definetly didn't turn, because it still fit over it, just didn't seat. I got a light on it and saw it had some gunk on it. I covered the cam up and sprayed it clean.

That whole are3a is full of gunk, I just don't know how much I should clean, because I don't want that stuff loose in the engine.

 

howd you get gunk in there? what kind of gunk is it?

 

oil gunk. large deposits of it.

Gunk is what I call it, others may call it sludge. But most of it is dry, and looks hardened but it is soft to the touch. It is definetly caused by oil pooling and gunky oil-build-up. Its nothing foreign, and its the same stuff that was in my oil pan when i took it off. I'll put up some picks in a few.

I removed as much as I could though, I just don't want this stuff loose in the motor, especially by the cam.