First of all, where did you find a '78 850? They were not released until the '79 model year.
OK, you might have one of the early ones that was ASSEMBLED in '78, but it's still a '79 bike.
Concerning valve clearance: you can't order anything until you know what you have. Inventory your shims. Remove ONE shim, record its size and location, put it back. Remove the next shim, record its size and location, put it back. Repeat until all are recorded AND PUT BACK.
DO NOT ROTATE THE ENGINE UNLESS ALL SHIMS ARE IN PLACE.
Now that you know what you have, take the thinnest one out, put a quarter in its place, move the thinnest one to the other locations that had shims thicker than that. If you can now measure clearance, you might have extra, but it's easy to determine how MUCH extra and order the correct shim. If you are lucky, you might only have to guess on a couple of shims.
Now for two things that will help you considerably:
1. Take advantage of the offer in my sig.
The spreadsheet will help you with your shim inventory and the math necessary to determine what shim you need. It also has a page that is a handy service log.
2. Take advantage of the
GSR Shim Club.
Click the link, you will be taken to a thread that will give you some more information on how 'the Club' works. One of the best parts of that is that you can order some extra shims in varying sizes where you might have to guess at what you need, just send the extras back, along with the ones you removed from your engine.
3. Do you have a factory service manual? Go to
our library (also known as "BassCliff's website") and get one.
4. Follow the procedure for valve adjustment CAREFULLY, it's easy to mis-read it, but the factory manual does it best. And, as good as the manual is, there is a
tutorial in the library that shows the procedure with better pictures than the manual.
5. Be sure to ask questions if you don't understand something fully.
.