'73 RR rubber insulated front crossmember

When I installed the K member about a year ago, I changed out my 40+ year old rubber insulators with poly ones. The kit came with shims but, I really didn't know what they were for so I didn't use them. My manual on pages 2-27,28 says to use the correct number and thickness of shims to correct for the proper height. Can someone tell me what are the shim for?Is it for steering alignment or what? Do I need 3/16" of shims to be correct?

Any help is appreciated.

If there were no shims in your car, either it didn't need any or it's been messed with before.

Hey Dennis, so, your car originally had rubber bushings and they were sleeved on each half with the sleeve collar acting as the washer on the top section and on the bottom section. Now, in addition to the sleeves there may have been shims only on the back two connections, mine had 1/8 shims on passenger side and 1/16 on drivers side. Now, the new poly kits should come with two giant washers for each set of bushings, about the same diameter as the bushing, this is not a shim, and should also have a separate metal sleeve that runs through the bushing. The shims if installed on your car should be reinstalled on the side where they came from. With that said, sometimes and as on my car, the shims were rusted to the top section of the original bushing sleeve and collar, so they had to be separated and cleaned and painted before they were put back on.

IMHO, shims are particular with every car on its assembly moment with those specific mounts. So if you changed anything this shims could be unusefull, needing less or more... Even more considerating the deflections of the body after all these years what changed the body aligment.

If you ask me, those shims are so thin that are allmost unapreciable.

I changed isolators once and fit same shims I found on every corner, but doubtfully they are making the same job anymore like back in the years when body was assemblied brand new.

Thanks to all.....I will forget the shims and keep them in the box. Why tinker with a good thing.

Again, Thanks.

I simply would install them on the same spot they were.