something must be wrong!!!

[Motofun]

The FJ shim-ver-bucket design is easy peasy.  You want a real PIA?  Buy a more modern shim-under-bucket design.  A 2 hour job will take all day.  The real answer to your question is to have a set of spare shims at the ready.....

[FJmonkey]

If you don't have any extra shims, then use quarters as temporary place holders till you pull the correct size from another location. Just don't run the engine with quarters for shims. Or if you do, tell us how it went with pictures.

[racerrad8]

Use the chart to establish the baseline. From there use the quarter trick as Mark just mentioned.

It you have the proper tools and the chart,  the job is very easy.

One more note,  you cannot properly measure the valve clearance once the shim has been changed. The oil pools under the replacement shim and give erroneous readings. The engine must be run up to temp and then cooled back down the recheck the clearances.

Randy - RPM

[Bones]

Monkey got in first with the coin trick and depending on what country you live in the type of coin will vary. I recently did my shims and an Australian $1.00 coin is exactly the same size as a shim so I used a couple of them while swapping them around. the coin is soft and won't hurt the cam lobes when turning over.