horizontal valve alignment

mohrt · Regular Member Joined: 23 Aug 2007 Posts: 21

Seeing a few PVA threads around here, I decided to give my trusty old Bach 37* valve alignment a look. Although I didn't see anything too visually "off" about the vertical alignments, what I did notice was a slightly off horizontal alignment. Low an behold, give the valve a little twist and it lines right up! This must be due to the slight play in the valve guides? I have nylon ones now, would brass help? Any simple fixes for making valve guides "tighter" ? Should I be concerned about this? Although I'd like to think the horn is at fault for stuffy sounding or note slotting issues, I cannot be sure it's not the player

TIA

Brad361 · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 6:23 pm Post subject: Re: horizontal valve alignment

yourbrass · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:32 pm Post subject:

Bach pistons are remarkably consistent. You have nothing to worry about.
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shofarguy · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:35 pm Post subject:

If the guides themselves are loose fitting in their lands in the cases, new ones should help. But there is space between the guides and the slots in the spring barrels where the guides ride up and down. There has to be this clearance, so there will always be some twisting room. Pistons will follow the path of least resistance and will tend to settle into a certain path where they travel freely.
At that point, if the ports are radially our of alignment, there is a way to change that positioning. It includes unsoldering and re-soldering the spring barrels to the pistons. That's not something for just anyone to try.
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scottfsmith · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 7:55 am Post subject:

This is one thing I have not understood about precise valve alignment jobs - why are people concerned about microns off vertically when there is .1-.3mm of play horizontally that I presume is not getting changed by a valve alignment job?
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ghelbig · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 9:21 am Post subject:

lipshurt · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:42 am Post subject:

most people say that radial alignment is less important. Not sure if i buy that, but if one port is off a bit the other ones are usually less off. Like the consistency of the port and piston layout is more like to be off radially than vertically. So in other words getting them all good is sometimes impossible, and that more likely true for the radial axis.
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Don Herman rev2 · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:03 am Post subject:

Flip Oakes does both vertical and horizontal, and probably others. Aligning horizontally means rotating the valve and that usually means unsoldering and resoldering the stem or valve guide in the proper orientation.
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LittleRusty · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 12:57 pm Post subject:

RandyTX · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:23 pm Post subject: