Ok, so Sybill now has her two new (well, new to me...they're actually from a boneyard in Houston) homokinetic axles in place...unfortunately, there were no shims sent along with the axles. See this link: Axles

After installing them and putting the snap ring in place, there is approximately .020" - .030" lateral play at the inboard part of the axle. The FSM says to shim the axle so that the snap ring is a 'tight' fit but I cannot for the life of me, understand why this shimming is important.

FYI, I cannot drive the car yet because I need a replacement bushing for the anti-torque mount...

I read all the forum stuff about 'preloading' for proper wheel camber but, think about it, the entire axle has to change length when the wheel moves up and down and when you compress the axle to remove it so, shimming the inboard part of the axle couldn't make any difference to camber. Anyway. if you were to put enough outward pressure on the axle to compress it and actually change the wheel camber, the CV joints would probably blow out in a matter of miles!

What is everyone's take on this shimming?

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