I used two 24" steel dowels from home depot, ground the tips to kind of a point and cut the other end about half way through at a 45 and folded them into a handle... glad i did too, had a lifter that didnt want to stay in the tray on the right side, wanna say either #6 intake or #8 exhaust, would stay up momentarily but slide back down.

 

I did the home depot 5/16" rod thing as well... I beveled the tip to resemble a dull pencil, and I remember grinding a flat spot all the way down the rod for some reason that I cannot remember. I bent a 90* at the end to help me spin them around a bit when inserting and removing. They worked flawlessly on three cams so far.

 

I Had the same problem as Wolftrk99 on an 08 Vette. We had to hold it up with a pen magnet to get the rod to slide in past it.

Got the same steel rods at home depot cut them shorter. Then we folded 1 end over 90* in a vise for a handle at like 24 inches Handle was like 4- 6 inches long

 

I’ve had numerous motors where a couple lifters wouldn’t stay in the tray. One with only 2-3000 miles (factory ls2). My new motor has link bars so I may try dowls if I ever cam swap it. Normally I use magnets.

 

I agree ^^^^. I've done 4 cam swaps now and 3 sounded like they'd stay and one of he swaps... Half of the lifters wouldn't. Also Fwiw I still have the same set of wooden dowel rods that I used with the first swap. I'd bet I could do 100 more using the same dowels. I kind of like the wood better honestly... No gouging or scratches and you can actually feel them flex a bit as they slide past each lifter holding it in place.