is there a rear shim walkthru?, one side is worse than the other..... Options

[broomhandle]

Is there a walkthru on how to shim the rear control arms? both my rears lean in, but one side is worse than the other. is there any good secrets to shim it correctly? and pictures always help!

[Mike Bellis]

ideally both sides would have the same number of shims. You either need an alignment shop to equalize the camber or use a string system to find your camber.
It is possible that your unibody is bent or suspension console is bent or rusted.

McMark can help you if you can get the car to Sonoma.

[mepstein]

Does your passenger side rear wheel lean in more than the drivers side. If so, that's the rear suspension console rusting away. A common problem and sort of expensive to repair.

[McMark]

How many shims are on either side? People who aren't familiar with our suspension setup can tend to think that shims are a bad thing and zero shims is best. But this is backwards. All 914s need shims, except the most specialized race cars, but those guys know exactly what they're doing and why.

The worst situation is to have a lot of shims on one side and none on the other. This indicates a bent chassis or other serious rust problems.

The shims are related to your rear camber. An hour or so on Google should get you some good info on roughly checking your camber. As Mike mentioned, setting your camber is part of a complete alignment job. And getting a good alignment can do wonders for your handling, as well as making sure your car tracks straight and saves tire life.

As Mike also mentioned, if you feel like driving down to Sonoma, I'd be happy to help out. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/thumb3d.gif)

[broomhandle]

Does your passenger side rear wheel lean in more than the drivers side. If so, that's the rear suspension console rusting away. A common problem and sort of expensive to repair.

yes its the passenger side. what signs would i look for if its a rust issue? it looks to me like its a shim issue, but i have not seen any rust issues....

[jcd914]

i have not seen any rust issues....

Unless you have a very rare 914 if you have not seen rust you have not looked hard enough. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You should come by the Porsche Family Reunion on Saturday, 1 of us there can help you look over the camber and shim issue.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=110518

Usually a good turn out for these, no all 914 folks but car guys.

Take care
Jim

[mepstein]

Or jack up the passenger side, pull the wheel and take pics. There are a lot of members on this board who are very good at spotting rust. Sometimes it's hidden under tar, bondo, undercoating, paint ect.

I would look very carefully before driving on the road. Many a teener has lost it's wheel due to this issue.

PS - I had this on a teener in the early 80's. The Cali cars are just taking longer to catch up.

[broomhandle]

i have not seen any rust issues....

Unless you have a very rare 914 if you have not seen rust you have not looked hard enough. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

You should come by the Porsche Family Reunion on Saturday, 1 of us there can help you look over the camber and shim issue.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=110518

Usually a good turn out for these, no all 914 folks but car guys.

Take care
Jim

I would come to that, but i have a wedding to go to... yeay (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) ill see if i can swing by maybe right at 9 and take off... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

i have rust in other areas, but can not see any but the arms. is there somebody in the area i could swing by and have a look?

[underthetire]

Not much work to do the actual shims, but like said before if the passenger side takes more shims you probably have bigger problems. I just put a protractor level across my wheel and add shims until I get the desired camber. The hard part is measuring the toe in/out, If you mark carefully before you move the arm you can get pretty close.

[EdwardBlume]

I took 2 off my pass side and 3 off my drivers side... and they are going back on in the same spots...

[broomhandle]

Not much work to do the actual shims, but like said before if the passenger side takes more shims you probably have bigger problems. I just put a protractor level across my wheel and add shims until I get the desired camber. The hard part is measuring the toe in/out, If you mark carefully before you move the arm you can get pretty close.

yep, I always knew i had to fix the bat tray rust, but never thought about its over the support. my 1970 is rusted thru, and i also have a 71 thats worse.... the fun begins!!! thanks guys. i would have probably passed it off as something else.

[mepstein]

If you have battery tray rust, the water and acid mixture has probably traveled down and washed over the suspension console. The folds and creases in the metal and road grime hold in the acid mixture longer. Sometimes the paint holds up better than the metal so everything looks fine until you start removing paint and undercoating.