A cautionary tale when working on push rods

pishta said

That is some bad luck right there! How did the ball end not seat itself when placed down there? Seems it would naturally want to seek its lowest point ( seat) under tension as those lifters are like bowls on top. The small seat lifters were OEM pre 68 iirc but many have used them with later pushrods and vice versa. Doesn't make it right but they still work. Bummer

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The retainer on these lifters is large and flat. The pushrods are flat on the bottom. This allows the pushrod to hang on the retainer if it is not properly centered. As you can see the Smith Bros. is more radiused than the CC. The question that I have now is what damage, if any, has been caused to the other lifter retaining rings during installation. Are any of them damaged but still holding, for now. I have a bore scope I can use to check it out.