HONDA VALVE SHIM TOOL

[itsacbx]

hey all, i had a Honda valve shim tool which Im finding is absolute nightmare to use as it appears that the width of the tool is not wide enough for the shoulders to ride on the edges of the valve buckets, so when I depress the tool its jamming rather than easily depressing the bucket so I can remove the shim.
Ive ordered a new 'Honda' marked one today from Motion Pro, claimed to be for a CBX so we will see what that does for me when it arrives.

On another shim matter, I reassembled the head and because I had a replacement head I just installed whatever shims I had as there was no relationship to use historically ie: new head [to me] with the valves that belonged to the new head, but the original cams and buckets were from the discarded head.

Ive found only two valves have any clearance whatsoever, so to arrive at what shims I need, I found a 230 shim and am installing it in every valve and then determining what the gap is, then buying the correct shim that gives me 5 thou clearance. Make sense?
Al

[Larry Zimmer]

Makes good sense. Remember, DO NOT put something back together without some shim in it. You cannot turn the cams without some shim in each bucket.

[itsacbx]

Yep, head is completely assembled with all shims, now just waiting for my new tool to arrive so I can make final adjustments.......
Al

[daves79x]

What you do is test-install each cam in the head on the bench. That way you can get close to the correct shims installed before you get the head actually on the engine. Pretty tough to rotate a bucket with zero clearance. The head you are using obviously had some valve seat cutting done.

Dave

[itsacbx]

all sorted, every valve needed a different shim ,but with the correct tool it was a breeze....
Thanks everyone
Al

[Jeff Bennetts]

all sorted, every valve needed a different shim ,but with the correct tool it was a breeze....
Thanks everyone
Al

What tool did you use Al?

[itsacbx]

Hi Jeff,
Both were Motion Pro with Honda stamped on the handle......
The original one was purchased from a Honda dealer.
The second correct one was borrowed from an independent bike shop but it was also stamped Honda and it also came from Motion Pro but was a fraction wider at the loop that pushes the shim bucket down and was significantly thicker throughout. I tried to swap their tool for mine but they were a wakeup to my sleight of hand - just kidding.......
So any time I have to do shims I guess I have to borrow their tool again.
Al