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After a less than spirited drive, the Pantera came home with a noticeable tapping sound near the passenger valve cover.  After removing the valve cover I quickly found the loose rocker.  The source of the looseness was a mashed push rod end at the rocker arm.  I have seen bent pushrods in the past but this is the first time for a mashed pushrod.  The engine is a bone stock 1971 351C with low miles.  Napa actually had the replacement in stock for less than $5.  It is good that I caught it before the end completely broke off and dropped down to who knows where.  Has anyone seen this before and/or know the root cause?

D7DCFE9E-F464-468E-9835-1EA937A1B36B

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Last edited by stevebuchanan
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OEM and cheap replacement pushrods often have ends made by spinning tubing against a hardened cup until friction makes it go soft enough to bend and form a half-sphere that is about the same thickness as the pushrod wall. An oil hole may be left as formed or drilled. Aftermarket pushrods are usualllly made by welding a solid ball bearing onto a tube end, then drilling a hole for oil. A spin-formed end will not be as robust as a ball bearing in taking millions of small impacts.

As mentioned, you may have gotten a defective pushrod 50 years ago- Ford made them in trainload batches and statistical QC is not perfect. Just replacing the stock pushrod(s) may not permanently 'fix' things either: I've had stronger aftermarket pushrods punch clear thru the cup formed in stock stamped rocker arms. This is Smokey Yunick's 'weak-link engineering'. Nothing lasts forever.

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