I pulled the timing cover off my 1990 Bonneville to get a broken tap out of the block and I'm going to do a timing chain while I'm at it but i noticed that my Hayne's Manual is telling me there is a shim that fits over the "key" on the crankshaft behind the timing cover. I cannot find that shim ANYWHERE, even the oil pan is off and it didnt fall in there. I'm wondering if it never had one? Car has 325K on it so I doubt its the original timing chain on it but I'm curious if i absolutely need it or not seeing as the engine had 0 problems before besides the coolant leak. Its a 3800 V6 and would like to know if anyone has experience on these engines and knows what I am talking about.
I know what you are talking about. It probably got displaced during one of the previous timing chain services.
The good news is it is a non-essential part, so you're not really going to have adverse effects from it going missing. The 3800 V6 motors were very good motors, so I wouldn't worry about it myself.
