Front Suspension Shims, they fell out

[speed220mph]

I asked this on Club Cobra too, but I suspect I'll get an answer here first. Whatever works.

Anyone ever have this happen . . . and fix the problem? The story first: Took my ERA GT out for a ride last week and noticed the steering wheel was off center. Upon returning I also noticed an alignment shim laying in the driveway. Putting two and two together, I flipped up the front end and, whoa, all shims were missing from the front of both right-side upper control-arm pivots! There was the reason for the misaligned steering wheel. Wierd because the car didn't pull. Caster had to be off.

Back to the problem: I guess what happened is the pivot bolts loosen just enough to reduce the clamping load on the shims which allowed them to fall out. I now wonder how the shims are clamped between two solid flanges. And from a practical standpoint, I'm also wondering how I can install new shims, then get an Allen wrench into a tight area to loosen and retighten the pivot bolt so they will retain the new shims. Realignment will have to be done. Too bad. It was spot on.

Any suggestions on tools and techniques?

 

[Bob Putnam]

The shims are not held in by compression. They are retained by a cotter pin that goes through all the shims, including the ones on either side of the thrust washer that have a big hole, not a slot.

 

[speed220mph]

Bob: Makes sense. Some of the shims were safety wired, but not all. Those were the ones that fell out. After reinstalling them I'll secure each stack with a cotter pin.

So, if there's no compression on the upper arm pivots, what keeps the upper control arm from shifting fore and aft? I guess the answer is to fit the shims in as tight as I can.

Thanks for the help.

Tom