I am finally putting my engine back together and I was trying to use a valve spring compressor I borrowed from a mate who does V8s... it doesn't really want to play nice.

has anyone had experience with overhead spring compressors on dual sprung minis like below? Do the prongs work well for the dual spring? Or is the pitch of the spring coil in such a way that I won't be able to get enough compression?
https://www.kincrome.com.au/images/Prod ... /08083.jpg

I was hoping that one of these overhead ones work well so that I don't need to take the head off if I ever need to get to the valve stem seals in the near future.

Otherwise it looks like it's time to buy a TOOL05 which requires the head to come off (not so hard now that I know how to do it).

Cheers

Bought one of these. Just needed to bend the arms to the exact angle.

Worked fine for my Cooper S head...

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Universal-Ov ... SwiLdV9sAS

_________________
Cooper S Mk2
Cooper S Mk1
ex Cooper S Mk2, various Morris 1100s, 1300s, 1500s, Leyland Sherpa!

Take out spark plug.
Wind engine over to move piston to bottom.
Feed into the plug hole a long length of rope.
Wind engine over to compress rope and hold valve closed.
Make a tool out of flat bar with a hole where the valve is and a slot in the end to go under a nut on a head stud.
Lever down to compress valve spring and remove collets.
Refit is the reverse.

Works a treat

_________________
Find a job you love and you will never have to go to work !

Awesome that's exactly what I was hoping to hear. How did your fingers go with the little tap grip handle?

No problems as I remember.......

Everything went smoothly - I used the rope trick as mentioned.

_________________
Cooper S Mk2
Cooper S Mk1
ex Cooper S Mk2, various Morris 1100s, 1300s, 1500s, Leyland Sherpa!