Following Jack's advice I pulled the valve cover on my 94 and adjusted the valves today. After reading his excellent information I found that  the exhaust valves were both at the bottom of the specs, one slightly over and the other slightly under .03 MM. I used a large screwdriver to pry the bucket down and another one 1/4 inch thick to hold the bucket down and remove the shim. The left side was less than my smallest feeler gauge so I was not sure of the exact clearance. That shim was a 2.65 and it was an original shim on a 20 year old bike with 12.8K miles.
I took the shim to Cycle City in Newport News, figuring I would have to order the shim. The parts Man, who knows me by first name, told me to take it back to the service dept and they would exchange it for the proper one for 4 bucks. Did that, went to lunch, got home and popped that baby in and it was just under max specs, probably .075 MM. I have 4 feeler gauges in the acceptable range and it was good to the largest gauge.
It all went so smooth, I plucked the right side exhaust shim out and it was also a 265. I never figured I would get this done so quickly, but I hopped in my car and drove 17 miles back to the dealership and exchanged that one for another 260, got home popped that on in and checked both and they were at .07-.08 MM. The intakes were at .04-05MM so I left them alone.
The guys at the dealership measured both the shims I took out and made sure they gave me the the next thinnest. I did not buy a single tool, so I gave the service writer an extra $10 for his time, which he said was not necessary, but I told him it was well worth it to me.
Total cost $18, I was thinking I would have to buy a caliper but the dealership gents took care of that and now everthing should be good for at least another 12k miles, since the intakes don't seem to loose their adjustment.

Jack saved me some money with his method. I watched a couple of u-tube videos where they were using the "special" tool and it was popping out for both of the videos I watched. Using the screwdrivers I had no problem, popped out once on the right side and not once on the left.

Again THANKS JACK!!!!!
regards
Mech

You're welcome Mech, glad it all worked out so nicely for you.  I only tried the Motion Pro tool once and went back to the 2 screwdriver method.  It works best for me.

Where is this video?

what is the screw driver method.  i'm cheap and if i can do the valves without buying a new tool i'd be happy.

Quote from: GS500F2004 on September 19, 2013, 09:43:58 PM
Where is this video?

Mech is probably referring to the ones in the Video Tutorial Thread in the Sticky above.

Quote from: supersilas on September 20, 2013, 11:59:03 AM
what is the screw driver method.  i'm cheap and if i can do the valves without buying a new tool i'd be happy.

I think Mech saw this valve tool thing I made up years ago, I'm not aware of a video on the screw driver method unless it's one of those in the Video Tutorial Thread:

http://www.gs500.net/gallery/data/500/ValveShimTools.jpg

Take a large screwdriver and use it to push the bucket down, prying off the cam shaft (the shaft itself not the lobe). Using a smaller screwdriver that is a flat blade and 1/4inch wide, at the tip, use it to hold the bucket down where you have pried it, putting the screwdriver in sideways on the bucket, leaving the shim free for removal. Align the notch and use a very small screwdriver to pop the shim up, and a magnet to pull it out. Place the new shim in the bucket get it down in place and pull out the smaller screwdriver, then check your clearance to confirm the last is correct.

Measure the gap first before you remove the shim so you can get the next size thinner. I did not even have a dial caliper.

regards
Mech