Upper spindle shims during restoration - replace or leave off

[tcslc]

My multi-year frame off, every bolt off restoration continues (what was I thinking?) and I’m at the point of front end reassembly and am ready to mount the upper A arm spindle to the frame. I have the alignment shims that came off the car and disassembly photos to correlate how many and where, but before I go through the trouble of cleaning, replating, and replacing them I was wondering if I should just bolt up the spindle without any alignment shims and let the alignment professionals add them when the car is done and ready. That’ll be at least another 2 years at this point, but hey, progress to goal is progress.

[david premo]

If you put the front end together without any shims, the front wheels will have positive camber and might hit the fenders on a good bounce. You probably don’t want to drive it until it has been to the alignment shop.
Dave

[tcslc]

Thanks Dave. When it gets to that point it’ll be on a trailer to the alignment shop. Appreciate the advice.

[redroadster]

I did alignments at Datsun exclusively
Most 311s came with a 1/8 " shim in rear R side and a 32nd " or nothing in frt. R side
And 1/16 " rear in L side , 0 in frt
Camber L side , would be 0 to .5 positive and .5 degree caster
R side would be camber 0 to neg 0.5 degree
Caster 0.5 or less ....3/32 - 1/8 toe in
I recommend starting with these they were washer shims ( this was how the factory put them out IMO )

[tcslc]

That’s some solid info for the front end alignment section of the wiki. Much appreciated.

[theunz]

Why don’t you just clean up the ugly ones and put them back where they came from and then let the alignment shop replace them. Of course if they are washers which are not slotted then the shop is going to charge you a lot to remove them. If washers you can slot them yourself before installation.
P.S. if you want any kind of performance alignment you need to replace the bolts with longer ones. A good idea anyway.

[tcslc]

Good advisement all around and I ended up going with @redroadster starting recommendations on the left side, which is just about complete. Photos attached.

Question: any advice on torquing the lower ball joint? I’ve been torquing everything right to spec thus far, but my 3/4” torque wrench is too large to fit with the steering arm in the way. Should I remove the steering arm to make clearance or is there a better way? I’m talking about the castle nut.

[tcslc]

Following up, I removed the steering arm and the upper ball joint castle nut that was just finger tight at this point anyway. That allowed enough pivot (a lot actually) to get a socket attached to the lower ball joint castle nut and the socket to a calibrated torque bar extension and then my impact to get it all together tight and at proper spec. I can’t imagine working on this car without an air impact, torque bar extension set, and a good torque wrench.