Valve spring keeper tool

The biggest hassle during my recent valve job was reinstalling the springs.
I had a heck of a time getting the keepers in until I put this tool together:

I bought one of these spring compressors at Autozone ($13), but they are available everywhere:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b341/yellowLT1/CIMG0345.jpg

You can use it as is to compress the valve springs on one or two of the metro valves but it wont work on the others. You can also buy a large "C" type spring compressor but most of the ones I saw did not have a tip that would fit onto the metros recessed valves.

I had a carpenters clamp in my garage used it and the head off of the Autozone compressor as follows.

I removed the head by prying off the lock washer:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b341/yellowLT1/CIMG0346.jpg

The "wings" on the tool head came in contact with sides of the engine head when I tried to use it so i cut off two of the wings with a Dremel:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b341/yellowLT1/CIMG0348.jpg

Then I used the carpenters clamp with a rag on the combustion side to hold the valve in place. It was easy to put the keepers in with the spring held down:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b341/yellowLT1/CIMG0347.jpg

I'm sure there are many other ways to do it but this worked pretty well for me.:bigthumb:

Regards

I had one of those big, bulky C compressors and made an adapter from a piece of 1" conduit............
http://geometroforum.com/topic/638797/

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i315/planetetf/3cyl012.gif

It worked for me, but the next few times, I used my thumbs and my wife. I would push down the spring with my thumbs and the wife would drop them in for me.