ok, stealcomp you wrote me up something a while back that i printed out and I'm pretty sure i understand what your saying but i wanted to get your input as well as others like fiat, gofast, infomatic, and anybody else who knows what they are talking about.
From my understanding to get the perfect length i want to make sure the rocker is 90 degree to the valve stem while at mid lift. To find squareness to the rocker you talked about the trunions (sp) and i'm guessing, because i don't know for sure, that those are the axle type shafts that go through the middle of the rocker and the roller tip. You talked about machining marks and if i understand you correctly i should use the center of these two as a way to align my straight edge and then compare the square end to the the valve stem?
Here's a pic i took, kinda shows what I'm doing..
http://reitanfamily.com/gallery/d/21026-1/DSCF6315.JPG
Another pic, but hard to see valve stem...
http://reitanfamily.com/gallery/d/21038-1/DSCF6319.JPG
Also stealcomp, you talked about pushrod length not having anything to do with where the trip of the rocker is.... The more i extend the adjustable push rod tool the more forward the tip seams to be moving on the rocker.. Also i noticed a few time that the rocker was alittl off to the side of the valve tip, if i release the pressure on the rocker twist it a bit so that the push rod is centered on the guide and not touching one side or the other this is corrected... but whats going to keep things from not moving all over the place, do i have too much play in my guides or maybe this tool is just a bit skinnier than it should be? Now that i think of it there were two sized push rods that could be used 3/8 and 7/16 if i recall correctly, maybe i bought the guides for the beefyer pushrods? Just throwing that out there... i could be making no sense right now Not trying to but in here but I noticed in this months, "chevy high performance magazine" that Dart makes a set of adjsutable big block gide plates. they are a two piece part with an allen screw in t he middle between the two halves but they are $200 a set