curious about valve lash setting/check

Notches always down and on your left as your facing them. If you bought them installed wrong, your probably ok as the shafts are pretty hard. As long as there aint 70k on them like that. I have not had stamped rockers since my early 351 Cleveland days ('89) and I never had a lifter preload issue using the 'spin' method. Maybe I got lucky.....
And there again a little common sense goes a long way with valve adjustment. (Or most repairs on these old cars.)