Denny,
I used the procedure in the manual so I dropped the crank some while repacing the mains. I bought my bearings on Ebay and they were NORS. I bought a set of shims from LMC that were Federal M. and they were useless. They were.006" thick! I tried to explain to LMC but all they said is they would ask their supplier. In the end I used some shims that I had and made some of my own.
When I went to start the motor after, it was fairly tight. I put some gas down the carb to avoid strain on the starter and then ran it for about 20 minutes. It is still a little tighter when warm but the rear main is sealed up pretty good.
Before I replaced them I tried putting strips of shim material on the insert of each main, one at a time to see how the clearance was. At .004" there was no drag at all! This was with no shims present as they had been removed a couple of years ago.
Fred
