Valve seals and springs

I’m new to the group and have posted in the VF500 section before but I saw this and wondered if anyone had any thoughts. Seems like a good idea to me. The VF500 has a reputation for dropping valves so this would be an easier way of changing valve springs (if you can find them).
I’m posting in this section because I assume it gets more traffic. I have no affiliation with the seller.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-ALL-VF500-VF700-VF750-Valve-Seal-or-Valve-Spring-Replacement-/121942988658?

hi jeremyr62,
welcome to the forum,
A few years ago, someone came on the forum asking if it were possible to change the stem seals on a vf while the engine was in situ, I rarther “poo poo’d” the idea, since then ive seen a few clips on you tube of engine tuners changing the stem seals and valve springs with what looks like a pry bar with a hole in it which sits over the valve and a bolt which goes into the cam cap mount, looked quite easy with the engine on the bench…
The tool you have linked to looks an excellent piece of kit.

Yes. I agree. It looks OK to me too. I asked him if it would work for line bored engines with the longer camshafts and he confessed he wasn’t sure. I think it will. He offered to refund if it doesn’t work. Might give it a go. I have three VF500 engines to mess with, all line bored too.

Hi J,been looking at this tool to do the valve seals on the Bol.
The alloy bar looks long enough to redrill to suit the line bored heads.
The tool looks the business but the shipping cost is horrendous.
Having talked it over with some other forum members l think we are going to have one between us
Regards Bif

This is his reply when I asked about it fitting to the line bored heads.

Can you measure between the 2 holes for the bearing cap? My tool is 1.42 inches, (36mm), center to center, so if you have that or so close you could drill the holes a little larger in my tool, then I think it would work. Honda is pretty consistent due to tooling etc. If it is different, it is no problem for me to make one with the correct center to center bolt spacing, I use a CNC mill and it would take about 15 minutes and at no additional cost to you. If I need to make one, I need measurements within about .005. Thanks, let me know. Tom

I checked the distance between the bolts on a line bored 1000 head,it looks like 46mm that’s with my glasses on.
Regards Bif

On a line bored 500, I measured it at 38.8mm+/-0.2mm. Two of the bolts holding the cam caps on are long fluted special uniform bearing stress jobbies. Not really deigned to be reused I expect so perhaps not quite a benign process as I thought. The seller is very helpful and good to deal with. His name is Tom. He seems to be associated with V65 Magnas and Sabres of Arizona. His email is azv65@aol.com

From the photos it looks as if the tool mounts on the two m6 threads at the outer edge of the cylinder head,one of these normally holds the oil feed pipe the other the end of the cam cap.
I will email and see what he says about modifying one to suit the FF
Regards Bif

Looking at the tool it would be more universal if either one or both of the mounting holes were slotted, this would probably allow it to fit loads of different bikes.

He modified a version to fit my 1986 VF500. Took delivery today. If I get chance will try it at the weekend and report back.

I have tried it on one of my VF500 engines. The pictures of the installed tool are here.

5 new photos by Jeremy Robinson

It works really well. The force required to compress the spring in the VF500 is really not a lot. When you see the springs then you can see why. The inner spring is shockingly spindly. Which probably explains why they take a permanent set after high RPM abuse and exhaust valves drop. Valve springs are unobtainable now which is a pity as this tool would make swapping them a piece of cake.

Teambif ordered one to suit the 1000 FF model which has arrived and fits well.
The Bol will be first for the treatment as its oil consumption is a cause for concern.
New stem seals were fitted when the engine was rebuilt nearly two years ago but they were only the pattern ones from the after market gasket set.
I have sourced a set of genuine Honda seals and will try them and see if there is any improvement.
Regards Bif.

Getting the valve collets out was easy. Getting them back in far less so. I had to fiddle for ages just to get one set back in. I expect I will get faster with practice but it sure is fiddly work, and the potential to lose bits down the cam chain tunnel is very high.