Hey wait a minute. Even with the telescoping tubes, you have to remove the 
pushrods, right? And to remove the pushrods, you've got to take off the valve 
covers and unbolt the rocker assembly.

In any case, even with the traditional approach, this is a fairly quick job, and
very cheap from a part-cost point of view. All you need is new seals (for the 
99th time: VITON!), and possibly new valve cover gaskets. FWIW ;).

Oh, and I like the earlier post about removing the bails from the side by prying
them out of the holes. I have done that in the past with great success.

Erik.

In message <Pine.3.89.9506230946.A14223-0100000@mzes>  writes:
> 
> On Wed, 21 Jun 1995, James Brill wrote:
> 
> > I am helping a friend to replace the pushrod tube seals on his '81 
> > Westy.  When he pops the valve cover bail off of the left side it hits
> > the catalytic converter and won't let him get the cover off.  So we 
> > are wondering what needs to be removed to do this.  Does the exhaust 
> > have to come off or at least part way?  He says the Bentley is no help
> > in the matter.  He is on the way to the store now to buy an idiot 
> > book.  This is all I know.  He is half a continent away from me.  I 
> > can't check my Muir from work and I figured someone here might have a
> > few things to watch for on this.  Ok, thanks for any help.  Jim
> 
> IMHO there is no need to remove the valve cover. Just buy telescope 
> pushrod tubes and put them in. That is the easiest way to do it.
> 
> I know that they are available for a waterboxer, I do not know wether you 
> can get it for an air-cooled. :(
> 
> T.S.

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