[sweetk30]

shims are both good / bad

good = helps kick pinion up to take angle off drive shaft from transfer case .

bad = takes caster away in the alignment and can make them handle like crap .

best option = ditch the shims and work the drive shaft to make it last and function correctly .

other option = leave shims but have a good alignment tech do a full read out and see how far off caster / camber is .

then you can get shims to go between the knuckle and spindle to help put things back in line . . but this gets to be big money and time to set correctly for the hr's of labor to tear down and install correctly .

then if someone ever changes ball joints or services the shafts the spindle is off and possible shim back on in wrong clock rotation for caster / camber to stay set.

finding techs that know how to get these parts and install them is almost a thing of the past as you have found out .

go get a print out like this one and post it up so we can help pin point the problems. this style with bar graphs is much much better to under stand over the #'s only crap most places try and pawn off on you and you never know if its right . . . you can see here its plan as day easy to read . . . ( this was one I did back in my wrenching days )