Kingpin bearings, to shim or not to shim? What size shim?

[Dannyboyz]

Hi all, so the mighty GU blew a front left axle seal resulting in a pool of diff oil everywhere it was parked. Seeing as the wife an I are off to Central Aus in 3 months I decided if I'm going in as far as the seal, may aswel replace everything else on the way back out. When I got to pulling out the bottom right hand kingpin to replace the bearing, it was rusted soild, after alot of choice words, alot more time and a very crude last resort solution of a cold chisel it is off, however the shim is cactus. So this brings up my question, should I put the same shims back in, different shims or leave them out altogether? I have spent 2 hours pouring through threads on this issue and still am unsure what is the best way for me to go.
As far as I can tell people remove the shims to eliminate this "Patrol wobble"
My wagon is sitting up on 5 inches, rolling on 35's and I have only the slightest wobble around that 80kms mark, nothing that has ever bothered me before so I'm thinking of getting new shims the same size and putting them back in.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated!

Cheers, Danny

[Clunk]

Replace it with the same thickness shim

[mudski]

What Clunk said. Or get yourself a pull scale, or a fishing scale, remove tie rod end and drag link end. And the swivel hub seal. Hook the scale to the hub and pull on the scale and measure the force it takes to make the hub turn. The going spec is 15lbs. So then you can add or remove thick/ thin shims to suit.

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

[Dannyboyz]

Thanks guys, I think I will put the same shims back in, what would be the best way to measure something that thin? Digital vernier calipers? Just so I can get the right ones

[mudski]

Yeah digital verniers are the go....

[Dannyboyz]

Thanks mudski, I will grab some shims this week and hopefully get it all back together on Sunday