why are you 'pushing the rod down'? does it tell you to do that in the manual? the reason some will not push down may be because the last time the engine ran [years ago], that cylinder stopped with enough pressure on the lifter that it emptied ... and as pointed out above, those lifters need oiling via warming up the engine properly as called for in the manual ... what the manual is telling you is to tighten the adjuster just until there is no side play, ie: when the rocker is putting just enough pressure on the stem to stop that side play, there is no reason to manually push the rod down away from the rocker to obtain side play
Bill
