Duckstu

What do these little plates do?

I see in some diagrams there is supposed to be a cotter pin through them? But the holes are WAY too big for that.

Is there supposed to be something in there?

teamo

Those are the alignment shims. The cotter pin goes through the small hole in the frame,through the shims, and out the hole on the back side.

Mooser

What year is your car?
The alignment shims have a long cotter pin that goes through the frame piece there and just holds them in, the holes in the shim are large.
Maybe it's just the angle but those shims look like they are sticking out an awful lot
Here's a set off a 72, you can see the head of the cotter pin in the lower /right corner of the image above the time stamp

The shims don't really stick out of that pocket


Maybe your's are different
M

0Willcox Corvette

As mentioned above, these are the trailing arms shims https://willcoxcorvette.com/corvette...-63-82-230-057

GTR1999

It appears you have a gap in between your shims. If so you should check there is no play in the arm. If they are rust corroded you have to closely check the arm for rot- they rot from the inside out. Look at Mooser's picture you can see the shim are tight between the frame pocket and arm bushing. If they are loose or missing the car will steer from the rear, if the arm is rotted it will bend and break under load.

Duckstu

Ok thanks.

I can't wiggle them with my fingers,.... but the one closest to the outside of each control arm is definitely touching the arms.

But I don't see any scraping of the paint,.. so I know they aren't moving relative to the arms.

Still,.. I think I'm going to take it to the local Vette restoration place to have a few jobs done,.. and looking at this will be one of them.

forman

funny this is coming up tonight im in the middle of taking mine out too and before I took my drivers side out the shims looked the same as his and I could move it in and out from the car about 4-5 inches .
I knew both sides were done before i started I could move the wheels up and down about the same 3-4 inches on the passenger side and 4-5 on the drivers .
I got really lucky and the bolts came right out no sawzall needed every bushing is dry rotted and cracked

JayRay

use a jack stand

Jstan2014

Duckstu

Well,.. not one in Texas LOL

There's a couple shops in my area with good to great reps (according to some owners of MINTY late 60's early 70's Vettes in the area.)

One is Meisterworks, another is Vettestorations,.. and the third is Drayton Motors.

I'm not having a big resto done,.. just needing 3-4 things fixed. I'll probably take it to Drayton Motors.

May have the rear arms rebuilt with new wheel bearings, bushings (though I think they were done already), rebuild the parking brakes, check the front suspension, fix a small trans leak, re-do the headlight mechanisms (the adjusters are frozen),.. but I have the linkages, headlight adjustment sockets and screws en-route,.. so I may have those fixed this weekend.



But this morning it's going to a body shop to be cut & buffed. I got up early this morning to remove the rear bumpers, hood grills and chrome fender louvers.

Street Rat

Hello from Georgetown Jstan2014

Jstan2014