are my shims too big?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

peepers

peepers

10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Jun 30, 2003
Threads
173
Messages
2,081
i recently had a bunch of work done on the front end and the shake and shimmy at speed hos gotten worse.

the work completed was:
6 degree shims
new rotors
new pads
new ubolts
new ubolt skid plates
tire balance
alignment

when i picked it up, drove fine but between 45 - 55 mph wheel shook like crazy... scary crazy.

next day had the tires rebalanced and i torqued the u-bolts tighter/more

still shakes and shimmies, feeling like the tires are badly our of balance. before i start swapping tires around to get the right combo, did i go with too big of a shims and can that lead to the shake and skimmy?

i have OME heavy springs and the 3.5" shackles all the way around.
 
The fat end of the shim is facing forward, right? Too much shim would usually make for heavy sluggish steering rather than unstable shaking. Are tires are radials or bias ply?
 
Pete
I have a very similar set up. mine pulls to the right if i let go of the wheel. I think it started pulling after the body lift? i am used to it i geuss . I was getting that same wheel shake at about 55-65mph. i aired my tires to 50psi and things are a bit better. granted my tires have a max inflation of 65 psi(16's).
I haven't been able to get rid of the light pull to the right have had it with 2 different sets of tires. I though it was my bent tie rod and since I had to drive with it like that for several months while I waited for a "custom" budbuilt tie rod (very nice by the way) I got used to it.when I changed out the tierods finally and got it aligned it was still there. i have lost a few weights but one of my tires it was so out that he ran out of space to put weights. it drives alright some shimmies here and there but i just live with it.
I do not have shims up front that might be the issue. maybe you need to run those wheel balencers that Allan and fox run. that are for sbalancing big truck tires. I looked into them and was going to get a set but never did. mine isn't so bad right now
http://www.mrtruck.net/centramatic.htm
this isn't the manufacture but will give you a place to start to look for them.
HTH Jason
 
60wag said:
The fat end of the shim is facing forward, right? Too much shim would usually make for heavy sluggish steering rather than unstable shaking. Are tires are radials or bias ply?
Click to expand...

they are 34x12.5 Interco TrXus radials...

Jason, no pulling and with the shims straight as an arrow on the highway...
BTW i am so tired of spending $$$$$ just went ahead and ordered the balancers... as soon as this is straightened out (no pun) he is going up for sale? WHO WANTS IT? i can't lay off the mods, its like CRACK...

oh and yes, fat part front, 6 degree shims.

-PP
 
Last edited:
Did you get a computer print out of the alignment results or did they have to do it by hand because of the tire size? The caster shims shouldn't affect anything that will create a wheel wobble in my experience using them. Do you have monster size wheel weights that got rubbed off by the tie rod ends the first rotation of the tires? Did you rotate the tires on the wheels to allow for the smallest wheel weights possible? Sounds like out of balance wheels/tires to me.
 
sounds as caster problem to me .. in your alignment results you can see how much caster degrees you have .. check it, around .84 to 2.34º are right .. positive caster.
 
I would do the same as suggested above.. Get a print out of what you have now. The 6 degrees sound way to much. Who told you to get this size? I have 2 degress shims with OME shackles.
 
Last edited:
It usually tells what is measured on the printout and then what is the acceptable range. +.8 to +2 degrees sound correct.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom