how vital is this whole shimming the, flywheel thing? Options

[xsboost90]

talking to the guy i bought the motor from the other day, and he asked how many shims i had to put in the flywheel. I said..." shims?". When i bolted and torqued it 80lbs, i didnt see anything about no shims! Engine seemed to turn over by hand, alittle stiff, but turned over none the less. Could i be hurting it running w/ too much tension or something? Im planning on taking the trans back out for some parts replacement, i guess ill mic it then and check, but if its too tight could it toast the motor i guess? (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/confused24.gif) (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/headbang.gif)

[Elliot_Cannon]

It's been a looong time since I did this but I remember not being able to afford a dial indicator and used a feeler gauge instead. I can't remember the procedure but I rigged something up by bolting a wrench to the case in front of the flywheel and measuring the gap between the wrench and the flywheel. I tapped the crank with a mallet to move it toward the wrench, measured the gap, then tapped with the mallet away from the wrench and measured the gap again. I wish I could explain it better and it took awhile to do this but it worked. The engine lasted another 100,000 miles. What I do know for sure is this be pretty important to do correctly.
Cheers, Elliot