Valve shim removal technique tips wanted

I spent most of the day working on getting the valve shims out of my 2001 2.4 (120k, first valve clearance check), and I only managed half. I have both the little bent screwdriver and the plier-type tool with the wedge, plus a magnetic finger and a pick tool. This is one of the most challenging mechanical tasks I've ever tried.

The camshafts have an area in the middle that is hexagonal, and that makes the pliers and wedge fit poorly. The exhaust valves on #4 are hard to even get a good view of. There is a pool of oil on one edge of every shim, making it hard to see where the wedge tool sits. Once the shims are popped from their buckets, most of the time they still won't come out.

Looking for technique tips. Is it easier (and quicker) just to pull the camshafts?

A few of the valves are tight, most are on the tight side of the acceptable range. If I can, I'd like to set them all in the middle of the range.

My back hurts and I'm drinking beer. I'm not frustrated, I'd just like to be more proficient.

 

I went thru the same ordeal a couple of years ago. Bought the 'special tools' online, but just couldn't do it. You got further than I did.

I finally took it to a local 'toyota-only' shop. Hard pill to swallow, since I've done valve adjustments all my life .

 

I removed and measured the rest of the shims. I made a second wedge tool that was about 1/16" taller than the one that came with the pliers. It worked very well. Where the camshaft is hexagonal, and at the firewall end, where it's a larger diameter, the regular wedge tool worked OK. I ditched the pliers and used the little bent screwdriver to depress the valves.

Getting light on the subject, pointing the cam lobes up, removing the pools of oil for visibility, working quickly (because it's very uncomfortable sitting side-saddle on the battery and working left handed), and a few other subtleties made it much easier today.

I'll see what shims I need, order them, and maybe, when I go back in there, it will be cake.

 

Just went through this and posted some of what I learned here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2003-2-4l-valve-adjustment.409738/#post-11601180

Drying up the pools of oil helped a lot as you found out.
I used a hook tool to free the shim from the bucket and either the magnetic pick-up tool or
a long handled thin needle nose pliers to grab the shim.
I only had to reshim the #2 exhaust and the #4 intake. I started with #2 first just because it is easier to get to. With #4 I installed the wedge from the drivers side and removed the shims from the passenger side.

No luck with the pliers, but the motorcycle bent screw driver was great. I would not remove the cams to do this job.

I had to put on my computer glasses to see what I was doing and used a stack of 3 2x12" boards to stand on.

I hope you used a nice micrometer to measure the shims, calipers are not accurate enough.

Sounds like you are on your way.

How tight were your exhaust valves?

 

I struggled with the tool for the longest time when I did mine as well. Ended up just saying screw it and pulled the exhaust cam. Honestly pulling that cam is incredibly easy and if you line up the timing dots you really can't screw it up, takes maybe 5 minutes to take the cam off, and the same to put it back on. Just make sure to do it in the right pattern and keep the dots aligned. Intake side on the other hand, I didn't even bother with.

 

Once I figured out what I was doing, it was cake. With a magnetic LED light I picked up at the dealer's parts counter, I could put light right where I needed it, which helped me see what I was doing and work out a technique. Then even the #4 exhaust valves were easy.

I installed the new shims, checked the clearances again and decided to shuttle a few shims around because it's so quickly done.

Exhaust valves were: .011, .011, .011, .007, .007, .005, .008, .009 (#4 rear - #1 front; spec. is .010"-.014")
I set them to: .012, .012, .012, .013, .013, .012, .012, .012
Intake valves were: .005, .005, .005, .006, .007, .006, .007, .007 (spec. is .006"-.010)
I set them to: .009, .009, .009, .009, .007, .009, .008, .008



On the left is the tool I made. It's a larger wedge. The perfect tool, at least from my limited experience, would be just like the tool on the right but with a larger wedge replacing the small wedge on top.