bellaireroad

I recently noticed excessive negative rear camber on the driver's side. Took it into the shop today, and the cam bolt had loosened. They straightened it up, and tightened down the bolt. This was not an alignment shop, so it will need an alignment soon.

Drove the car around today, and the rear end was squirrelly. I also heard a clunking noise on hard acceleration, and the rear end would whip some. I thought maybe they took out too much negative camber, but took a look at the trailing arm shims. This is a photo of the inboard shim on the driver's side. There is only one shim, and it flops around. The passenger side has shims on both sides with no slack.

Could this be responsible for the squirrelly rear end, and the clunking noise on acceleration. Would excessive negative camber have covered this up?

FireballXL5

Where's the monster cotter pin!? Did it not have it from the get-go?

Of course you know shims can fall out anytime without the cotter pin in place... I dunno what ride characteristics would be like without the proper shims in place... But symptoms could be the same if I had to guess ..

Alan 71

Hi B,
The space between the frame pocket sides and each side of the trailing arm needs to be filled with shims. How many are needed on each side is the 'alignment'.
With the situation shown in the picture the trailing arm can move side to side…. it would cause the symptoms you're experiencing.
Regards,
Alan

FireballXL5

Just replaced the large cotter pin on mine when I reinstalled the trailing arm after rebuild... Just making sure you knew it's supposed to be there holding the shims down in the pocket... If forgotten they can slip right in/out...

Pic is upside down... Had to hold the phone upside down to get the flash and camera to capture it... Sorry... Looked right on my end til I loaded it here...

Tampa Jerry

The clunk you are feeling and hearing is the rear trying to steer the car. My 66 had poly bushings that disintegrated causing the same symptoms. What a fun drive. If you have extra shims, try to add equal shims on each side of bushing and hold them in place with either the factory carter pin or a few heavy duty zip ties. Next, get to an alignment shop that has experience with working with 63 to 82 vettes. Forget Tire Kingdom etc. If you need shims, buy a set of stainless steel from a Corvette vendor. Good luck. Jerry

bellaireroad

Mine does not have the hole drilled for the pin, it is a 3/69 build - I think this came in 1970, or maybe late 69. The shims have two holes and the bolt has to be removed to replace them. More difficult to replace. It is possible there were slotted shims in there that fell out. I will be lucky to find an alignment shop willing to do this

I am hoping this is all it is. I was seeing big dollar signs for a possible rear end rebuild. I think correcting the negative camber made it noticeable, and maybe that's why the cam bolt loosened.