Usually this condition is from one of the lifters being up on one of the cam lobes. All of the valves should be re-adjusted after removing the arms, anyway, so loosen all four of them, and get the stands torqued properly. Then start the dreaded "valve adjustment tango". Keep your 0.006" feeler blade handy!

Jake Beaulieu <jbeaulie@ND.EDU> wrote:  Howdy,

On Friday I pulled the drivers side head off the motor on my 82 air cooled
vanagon. After having some work done on the head (heli coil) I have now
reinstalled the head. I replaced the pushrod tube seals, installed the tubes,
inserted the rods, and bolted the rocker arms in place. The rocker arms on the
fan side of the motor won't bolt down flush onto the head. It is like the
pushrod on the far fan side is sticking up too far. The pushrod is centered in
the depression in the center of the lifter.

Should I just back off the adjusting screw and reset the rocker arms, or does
this indicate that something is amiss?

Thanks,
Jake