What is this and why is it where it is!?!

[Nfire247]

So for the last week or two (since i put new struts on my car [s13 240sx]) I have had a VERY annoying rattle coming from the passenger rear wheel area. I took the wheel off today to have a look around and found this thing resting between my dust shield and solid metal right on the top/back of my wheel assembly. The other side doesn't have one, and the only thing above it is wheel well, parts of it are shiny and it has clearly been rattling, just wondering what it is and where it should be, i don't like finding random parts i don't know what are rattling around! =P







any clues?

[IanS]

That would be a rocker arm.

The square part would have been, at one point, smooth. The cam would have ridden against the cam.

[themadscientist]

I would love to know the story of how that came to be where you found it.

[Nfire247]

yeah thats what i first thought it was too, just it didnt have a pivoting point so i wasn't sure, yeah really really werid place for it tho haha, looked kinda of like it was put there opn purpose.. top center, right behind the dust shield... weird lol. I'm jsut glad its out.. it was annoying as hell lol
Modified by Nfire247 at 5:08 PM 3/9/2009

[themadscientist]

The cup area is the pivot. The fulcrum is all the way to one end. Think of a classic lever.



With this though, one side is gone and the force is applied between the load and the fulcrum. The cam sits on top of the rocker and pushes against the pad.

Ls, SRs, and SOHC KAs use this system. FJs, RBs, CAs, and DOHC KAs use "cam on bucket" where the lifter is driven directly by the cam lobe, no rocker.

[Nfire247]

cool, thanks for the graphic too

still wondering why it was rattling in my wheel well though. lol

[themadscientist]

was your car a "fixer upper" when you got it? I bet that is not the original engine or maybe just the head. You have internal parts for an engine in the trunk, somebody had another engine in the back at some point. Look for high temp RTV on your engine , it's a sign of quality work.

[Nfire247]

lol yeah actually it was, and still is lolits DOHC swapped now... so maybe this is what happened to the original engine... =/ loli should check the rest of the car for retainers and springs and stuff lol

OOO yeah i'm all about the rtv too lol, pretty sure ima use it on my exhaust mani next....

[themadscientist]

My buddy coats head gaskets with it so he can reuse them. He kind of redefines retarded but his old Monte Carlo ran like that.