"buttoning up"the ol' 1980 kz1000

Can I get some advice on valve shim adjustment? Head was removed, valves lapped, and reassembled w/o the shims(they had gotten mixed up anyway).Head is still off the motor.
I thought I'd use the thinnest shim I have and check all the tolerances and then trade for any shims I couldn't match up. All my shims are on the thick end of the range.
I bought the Motion Pro valve tool from Z-1 but also I'm afraid I might damage the shim cup when I lever down the cup to insert the test shim. Advice?
Any serious (or humorous) advice would be appreciated.
Thanks for a great site.
kz80dave

welcome to z-jungle!torque head down on motor before checking valve clearances. we take our valve adjustments very seriously on this site,no humor allowed! ok i tried being serious :woohoo:

O.K. Plummen;
with a slap like that I'll tread lightly with the humor references, but is it acceptable, then, to assemble the motor w/o the shims and then do the adjustment thing? Thanks;
kz80dave

leave the shims in there to get baseline when you install the head,when you torque down the head and cam caps on motor it distorts things enough to change your clearances.i was told this by the "great one" Sid Pogue probably 25 years ago and still do it that way.you should see what happens to the nice round bore ona cast iron engine block when you torque a head on to it,same affect! :laugh:

I toss the lever and use only the batwing part of the Motion Pro tool, carefully hand-rotating the crankshaft via the 17mm fake nut, letting the cam lobe push and hold the valve down while manipulating the batwing into position, whereby the batwing will hold the valve down as the cam lobe is then turned away from the valve.

Some of the thicker shims might still be okay, especially if the valve stems were "tipped."

Could be wrong, but believe it's best to always have a shim in position when using the cam or lever to press down the valve. Idea being to avoid possible damage to the lip around top of bucket.

Good Luck!

Thanks gentlemen;
Advice noted and will be followed.
kz80dave