Valve seals revisited

A while back I asked about replacing the valve seals on my bike without removing the head. I wanted to let you guys know that not only is it possible, but it went surprisingly easy. Well, most of it.

I fed a length or soft cloth rope into the cylinder while it was down, rotated it up, pushed down on the spring and used a magnet to remove the keepers in less time than it took you to read this. Old seal out, new seal in, then reassembly.

OK, first one took about 45 minutes to compress the spring and get both keepers in. Next one about 30 minutes. Hmmmm. I checked on line and found a cool valve keeper install tool. There is even a video on you tube;


So I did all this to save $45 on a head gasket, but to tool that makes this easy is $32. Go figure.

im impressed !

I second that......very nice CSRchopper, very nice indeed.

way cool,,,

so is the tool you showed us the one that removes and replaces the valve keepers?
if so does it work as well as they advertise?
a friend here at work had shown me the video but i only work on things people bring me so they are already off and i use my conventional valve spring tools.
but when i needed to remove and replace the seals on my z1r i could have saved a lot of time with this tool.
thanks for posting.

VERY COOL.
how does that tool work?
So how did u compress the springs??

You compress the springs by pushing on them, or if they are too strong for that, then you....hang on now....use a hammer on the tool.
The trick here is if you want to do this without removing the head, then you have to get something under the valve to hold it in place so it doesn't drop into the cylinder. I used rope but others have used air pressure.

I feel like Hannibal from the A team; "I love it when a plan comes together."

that works great on the out side cylinders but what about the middle pair. not much room under the back bone of the frame.

Man I hate it when logic ruins a otherwise perfectly good plan.
You're probably right.

sorry there is no easy way to do things right

hey dude, tell me where to buy a cylinder head gasket for 45 bucks...i need one...joe

cometic gaskets or z1-enterprises, or ape what do you need copper or fiber type.