Because w/ dual springs & non-stock cams the stock bearing retainers are known to pop off. When they do, the needle bearings make a real mess & can ruin the engine. Had a stock retainer pop off only 200 miles after installing dual springs in the Munster. Found it early so there was no engine damage. There is a company that makes a kit that consists of a caged bearing that replaces the stock bearings & retainer, but, it's over priced. So, decided to tack weld the bearing retainers so that they don't pop off. I only have a stick welder, no wire feed & it's difficult not to blow through the thin retainer while welding. Ruined a handful of rockers while welding a set up for the Munster.
There are people who have after market cams & heavy dual springs using stock rockers that haven't failed (had retainers pop off). As noted, it has happened in my car. Therefore, the only way that I'm gonna use stockers is to tack weld the retainers so they won't pop off.
Pulled the SBC aluminum roller rockers because the whole inner bearing casing was walking out of the rocker on most of them. Actually, had (2) spring clips break as the ears hit the side of the rocker body because the bearing casing was walking (basically, the steel rocker pivot shaft was walking out of the aluminum rocker body). There was an issue w/ the press fit tolerances between the two. Probably only a problem w/ the CAT designed aluminum rockers, but, started a thread in the internal section so that guys using aluminum roller rockers can double check to make sure that this isn't happening to theirs.
Your car runs?...Wew hew, congrats!
Let's have some pics of the engine bay.
