Originally Posted by Mad Mike
You can change the cam and springs without pulling the head off. I'm about to do my valve stem seals and I think my hayns book tells you how to keep the valves from falling into the cly.
Put the piston all the way down on the cly you are working on. Remove the spark plugs, valve train and cam. All valves will be closed as soon as you pull the valve train. On the cly your working on, feed in some new cotton rope. Raise the piston up until you compress the rope against the valves. Now you can use a spring compressor to pull the retaines off and the springs and retaines will come off now. Install is reverse.