1999 V70 XC Replacing Valve Stem Seals

[flyingd]

I have having trouble replacing the valve stem seals. I am trying to use compressed air to keep the valves closed while compressing the spring to take off the spring keepers.

The problem is that the spring is not staying closed and so the keepers are not exposing themselves so that I can remove them. I have removed the seals like this in other cars using the compressed air to keep the valves closed so it should work. What am I doing wrong. I don't particularly like the rope in the cylinder trick; but if I have to I will.

Thanks in advance

[MrPc]

I had a little trouble with this when I did this job on my car too. I opted to use an "economy" valve spring compressor, instead of the highly recommended Schley tool....which I have been meaning to post about...

What I found was that you can compress the spring to a point where the spring retainers appear to be free, but they're not. You need to compress the spring a little further before they actually become free, and then they can easily be removed with a magnet. I was doing the job by myself, and the difficulties I was having with the sub-optimal compressor sometimes limited the amount of compression travel I could get. Getting the keepers out was hit or miss until I figured this out.

Also, in a few instances I found that if the axis the compressor acted on wasn't sufficiently in line with the valve stem, in which case the valve could be forced open against the air pressure sometimes too. Fiddling with the setup to make it more aligned fixed this each time.

What kind of spring compressor are you using? Are you doing the job solo, or do you have extra hands available? How much air pressure are you putting in the cylinders?

Paul