rear wheel camber/toe

[amalventano at sc.rr.com (Allyn)]

> It's quite a :PITA to rip that all apart, shim it, put it all back 
> together and re-check
> the alignment.  You'd have to be in tight with a good friendly shop or be 
> ready to
> pay extra...in my opinion naturally.

many shops will include rear shimming as part of the 4-wheel alignment cost. 
you have to make sure they:
a. are familiar with the concept of shimming the rear of a vw (some shops 
have no clue)
b. have the needed shims for our rear trailing arms (they have to look it up 
on the machines database). also, ask them how many shims they have.

as for the procedure, the shim is much better than the washer method. the 
shim is a complete circle big ass flat disc type washer. it has an offset 
cut such that you can rotate both halves intependent of eachother, giving 
unlimited adjustment from 0 to ~3-4 degrees total adjustment. there are 
indexing marks on the shim that the alignment gear software is aware of. you 
tell the machine where you want the rear alignment to be, and it outputs a 
picture of the correct orientation of the shim for installation on the car. 
once oriented correctly, 4 parts are knocked off for clearance of the stub 
axle bolts, and the shim installed. the entire thing is designed such that 
you only disassemble the rear once. when i had the rieger done, after 
reassembly the rear was within .1 camber/toe (and it was way off before 
that).

what makes this much safer is that fact that the shims have a very large 
contact area. all parts of the stub axle come into even contact with the 
shim, which has even contact on the trailing arm mating surface. its 
something that is designed to be used on passenger cars without premature 
failure.

if further info is needed i can try to find out what alignment machine was 
used, as well as the model # of the shims (i think i may have posted this 
previously, but i forget).

hth
Al