On taking the front axle of my 37 Ford apart I found a real thin shim washer under the bearing on the right hand side, the left side did not have this. Without the shim there's a tiny amount of movement of both the spindles. The shim washer would be about as thick as a business card - if even that thick. Are such shims vital to the assembly?
Is it a stock frontend? Was the bearing on the bottom or top? Shims, as needed, normally go between axle boss and spindle opposite bearing. Don't have a pic of 37 setup on hand. New shims and bearings come in the kingpin set.
Yes you use the shims to take any play out of the pin assembly. Any play will allow the spindle to move up and down over bumps, potholes etc and beat the bearing apart allowing more play and more abuse and beating. As said above the shims should be on the very top of the assembly, as in it should go directly under the top king pins boss so that no weight is applied to it. It's not to be load bearing but only there to remove play.
Thanks for that guys, it's a stock front end except for a disc brake conversion. In any event I am going to replace king pins, spindles, brake calipers etc so it's handy to know the shims are needed. hotrodA, the bearing was on the bottom on top of the shim, i.e. it was taking the load between the top of the bottom spindle 'eye' and the bottom of the I-beam axle. (I would be surprised if it would serve any purpose being on top of the axle!)
The shim does go on top of the axle under the spindle, there is no weight at that location. The bearing takes the weight, the shims take up any gap from wear or machining errors. It would be very hard to machine each axle and spindle to fit perfect, so they make them a little loose and take up the gap with shims.
I have not looked in awhile but the Speedway Motors catalog or web site possibly shows a diagram of how the components go together . Print it out and put it on your wall .
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