Posted by Dan Schultz on July 19, 2003 at 16:45:56:
In Reply to: valve job -how much,how good, how long posted by Kenneth Sloan on July 19, 2003 at 13:15:07:
The condition of the valves is critical but as one poster mentioned, you have no way to determine how the horn will play with new valves. It may have been a dog to begin with. I can generally tell if the valves are badly worn by simply check the pistons to see if they 'shake' in the bores. If they are fitted proberly there should be very little 'shake'. An earlier poster also mentioned valve alignment. There will probably be serious intonation problems if the holes in the pistons don't line up with the holes in the cylinders. This can happen if the shims, corks, and felts get mixed up during an amateur 'overhaul/cleaning'. I've redone several of my horns myself. It's just a matter of determining if the casings are worn and then telling Anderson how big to make the pistons. If you don't have access to precision measuring devices you will be shooting in the wind. Anderson's phone number is 574-294-6447. They have usually turned a set of pistons around in less than two weeks but there is lot more to doing a valve job than simply having the pistons sized and plated. If I remember correctly, for pistons that only require plating, Anderson charges between $30 and $40 each. Extra work to build up surfaces or do repair work is based on the actual time it takes. After you get the pistons back, you must them lap them into the casing bores for a nice fit and then will have to do a port alignment by adding or removing shims, corks, and felts from the top of the piston and the underside of the finger button. Anderson will do the complete job but you still have to remove the valveset from your horn. Dave Seigrist at Anderson has always been very helpful to me.