Any tips on removing a pushrod from the head? One of the pushrods on my 54 239 fell off the lifter. One of the rods was down in the head. We took the rocker arm assembly off. We tried a flexible magnet. We can get it to the base of the hole in the head and lean it up but can't get it out. I tried one of those flexible tools with the 4 little fingers at the end to grab things with. No matter what we try we can;t get the rod to come out. I do not want to take off the intake and valley pan if we do not have to. Has this happened to any of you and what did you do to get the rod out. It must have fell in by it self without being forced so it must come out the same way.

It seems if we could get the rod lined up north to south then we could pull it out...
Any tips appreciated!
thanks!

 

Question time, did it fall down in running or not running? Running it may of bent it enough to not be able to pull straight out. Not running, It should come straight out with a strong magnet.

 

Yep its happened to me too! I did all the same things as you have. I was able to get mine out with some very old long needle nose pliers, (once I got it close to the hole).

 

Not running.

Kevin, I thought of a very long needle nose pliers to grab it when I got it close. I will have to check with my friends to see who got one.
thanks!

 

Abe....hope you get that remedied.
I would look in a napa or tool catalog for the proper tool. Maybe such a thing exists...LOL
A professional engine builder should be able to fix you up.
Hope you the best....Bill

 

From another thread:
My brother-in-law came down Sunday from Northern PA to look at it. The last guy that looked at it and gave me a terrible prognosis, left the heads as they were. See, this guy did not do a compression test. He blew compressed air into each cylinder and measured how much held in, a leak down test. Yesterday we found one of the pushrods had fallen into the head and we could not get it out. We must have tried for 2 hours. My brother-in-law said you should do a compression test first and then a leak down test to pinpoint the problem. He did do a compression test on the other side. Those four cylinders were 90, 90, 90 and 80 lbs. My brother-in-law wanted to hear the engine run before he gave me his opinion, also.

Tonight, another brother-in-law (my wife's brother) who lives in town, came over with a long needle nosed pliers. We went out to look at the truck and he messed around with it and he got it out in 30 minutes. The needle nose was of no use, it wasn't long enough. We used a flexible magnet and 2 long stiff green rubbercoated wires that he used like chopsticks and we got it out.

So, my brother-in-law can come down this weekend to test the other side, put it all together and listen to it run. It did not have blow-by, did not smoke. Sometimes it would run rough and have a loss of power.

And boy was it cold in the garage Sunday!
Thanks for all your help!!