Anyone know how to remove the breather on the top of my A14 valve cover? I've pulled, twisted with no luck, and I can't see any way to get in from the inside because it's baffled (like me). I'm talking about the chrome looking thing on the left end of the cover in this pic: gallery pic
Thanks -
Michael

Well, it's a non standard part, so it's been attached in an unknown non standard way.

Is there any sign of brazing, or welding of any sort. If not, there are three aproaches that i can think of.

Plan A. The brute force & ignorance method. This simply means that you secure the cover to an engine somewhere & just go nutso with the grunting & groaning.
No good, then plan B.

Plan B. Carefully destroy the breather so as to try & save the rocker cover. This will involve the use of a hacksaw, pliers, maybee even a Stilsen wrench & a lot of swearing.
Still no luck? Plan C.

Plan C. Discard the whole thing & secure a replacement rocker cover.

Sorry, but that's the best that i can come up with.

Yikes - I didn't realize it's not original. I'll take a closer look and try to figure it out again. And I'll look through the galleries to see how it's supposed to look. I've already spent a lot of time removing the paint and sanding so I'd rather not start over from scratch!! Thanks -
michael

This part of the rocker cover is where the clean filtered air is drawn into the engine through a hose from the bottom of the original air filter.

Someone has gone for a dinky little air filter in the false belief that the engine will go better. This left no provision for the hose to join on, so they have stuck an external breather on to delude themselves into thinking that all the dust in the air is excluded from the engine.
Unless it has a good quality filtering medium, & not a handfull of coarse stainless steel wool, the dusty air will find its way inside. This can't be good for your engine.

The best place to draw clean filtered air from is the inside if a reasonably sized good quality air filter.

If you can get an original owners manual, or better yet, a workshop manual for your car, it will show you how it all works in the factory configuration.

Hehe I think it has the handful of steel wool inside. Well I'm going to end up with K&N filters on SU's most likely so I won't be able to connect it there. I guess I'll be on the look out for a good quality filter that will fit on top similar to this one but high quality filter. Thanks again -
michael

APC ricy honda breathers can be picked up at the parts store pretty cheap, that's what I have ( why? i dunno, it was cheap, even though I had to plug up the hole in my air filter for the hose, it would just look dumb with a hose going to the filter. ) I still have the PCV because it's a good idea and it's plumbed to the manifold.

Here's the carb setup and manifold I'm going to use below. The balance tube has been welded shut on both ends for whatever reason so maybe I should connect the breather to the pipe sticking up from the left part of the manifold?? Or will having the balance shut really give me problems with the valve cover connected to only one side of the manifold? Maybe I need to open that balance tube back up.

that pipe your going to connect the hose to is the manifold vaccum takeoff for the brake booster.i'd try to get the balance pipe cleared,because this does help.the open hole in
the balance pipe is where the pcv valve should be.try to run the standard aircleaner if possible,with a k&n filter,because the standard body has ram tubes which are important.if you dont have the original air cleaner,like i don't,you could always fabricate an oval base &
top,& get a large oval k&n filter(get the filter first,then make the filter to fit),which is what i have done.make it tall enough,you can even run the ram tubes.

OK. The carb setup in the picture is a factory GX setup with Hitachi carbs [not SU's] & it looks like it might have come from a B210 model.
If some idiot has welded the balance pipe between the two halves, then it will be to your advantage to drill it out & re-open this passage.

As B310GX has said, you do not connect the rocker cover to the suction side of the maniflod. The rocker cover should have clean air passing into it, not crankcase fumes passing out.
The path of airflow is from the air filter, into the top of the engine, down through the engine, out through a pipe via gauze thats inside the block. This pipe is at the back of the engine on [your] drivers side. From there it flows along a hose to the PCV Valve which is screwed into the hole in the balance pipe of your manifold. From there the gasses are drawn into the cylinders, burned & are passed out through the exhaust. The carbs are designed to provide the correct mixture with this small, metered amount of air that is bypassing the carbs & flowing directly into the manifold.

Workshop manuals for the 610, 810 & 910 models may show the correct setup & tuneup procedures for these carbs as these models were available with the L18 engine & these square top carbs. It is important to either, hook up all the hoses correctly. or to know which hoses to block off, why, & what effect it will have when this is done.

If possible, use an original air filter assembly as this will ultimately complete the package, & when correctly tuned, it will start easily, run strong & provide all the street performance that you seek. You'll love it

I ran a 1200GX setup [round tops] on my 1200 engine for about 15 years or more & i will still sing their praises to the masses. I loved them & if i can't come up with a suitable EFI, i will recondition the carbs & re-install the whole thing & use it again.

I have seen others have trouble with these before. Last time I looked a one for a friend it was old and the rubber grommet that was mounted into the rocker cover had degraded to the point where it had bonded to the breather. It was removed by Dodgemans brute force method explained above, not a pretty sight but it got it out.
If that fails, then take the rocker cover off and check it out from the inside to see if it has been welded or glued.