[Shotimes] vibration: what is wrong?

[Ian Fisher]

The vibration occours pretty much at any speed but it
does seem to increase as the car moves faster. This
would indicate a rotational issue like a bad wheel
bearing but I haven't found that to be the case yet. I
still need to check the passenger side by
disassembling everything. I can't really trust the
"grab and yank the wheel around method" anymore.

re: shims and alingment. I thought that it was odd but
I think the shop was trying to go the extra step to
get my car aligned as perfectly as possible. They did
notch something out at the LCA to SF mounting point to
adjust camber since it was way out on the driver's
side. I have not had that bolt out so I can't really
see what they did. It is possible that the bolt is
slipping. If that is the case, I have Mark Levy's old
1990 subframe to install in my car for when I do the
motor swap. I was planning on dumping the tension
strut rod shims and using the Ingalls adjustable
tension rods. I never really liked the idea of the
shims.

It's interesting what you said about the bushing
compressing but I don't really understand. I believe
the shims are in between the bushing and the metal tab
on the strut rod that the bushing normally sits
against. Why would the addition of the shim alter the
bushing compression?

By the way, this started after the alignment but the
car was aligned months ago and this problem is fairly
recent (though it was getting worse with time).

I think the CV joint failed because the subframe was
moving up and down and extending the boot. SF bolt was
loose which was causing that mishap.

I hope this was coherent. I just took some Tylenol 3
so I am on cloud 9 at the moment. :)

thanks
Ian