Really sorry but another (1985) vf500 valve clearance question

Reading through many pages and either not seeing the info I need or looking at the wrong stuff so...

Quick backstory:
Bought an 85 last Friday. "Was" running but dies on the p.o; so I picked up for $20 (cdn). Seems the p.p.o. thought a can of black spray paint across the plastics, tank and side casings would look pretty...

Got it home and cranked but no spark. Wound up buying used cdi boxes, rectifier thingie, 4 coils and many other parts from another owner for $100 (including 2 wheels, rear caliper, all body plastics). Swapped electronics and cranked with spark but NO start.
Pulled the carbs to check and they were way off plus one mix screw was missing. The p.o;. did say he tried all sorts of things to get it going...except diagnose for spark-no spark.

I cleaned the carbs and floated to 6.2mm and added a screw from a 2nd pair I picked up.

Started great but a tad noisy so I thought I would check the valves to be safe.

Pulled the covers but I am using the Clymer manual and although I rotate and rotate and confirm the marks and position of the lobes, I can't seem to see any clearance beyond maybe .003 (.11mm).
The Clymer manual states .12mm/.0004 inch for the intake and .13mm/.0005 inch for the exhaust but as luck would have it, my feelers have different values stamped (so .115 is .004, etc). Not sure which to believe.
I also read elsewhere that the clearances were revised to .16mm across the board!!

So, without a fancy Honda tool for holding things in place, what are the accepted clearances for the 85 intake and exhaust? Should I "hold" the mechanism up when feeling the clearance or just let it drop onto the feelers?

Do valves usually tighten or loosen over time?

Thanks much.