Reporting back...I had to leave the extra E95 under the cam in order to get the best follower alignment. All the followers were biased towards the outside. The only complication I had was to pull the rear follower stud out a tad to keep the steady plate straight and away from the cam gear.
Thanks for all your help and observations.
So if you had to use an E95 under the cams, how did the the alignment between that cam pinions and large idler turn out?
Adding E95 shims under my cams puts them into pretty much perfect alignment with the follower, but.... that puts the cam pinions out by .030“ in relation to the large idler. Moving the large idler out .030 isn’t exactly straight forward and if I do that then I have to move the halftime pinion, breather pinion and mag pinion out as well. Shaving .030“ off the side of the followers seems like a simpler option. I suppose I could shave off .015“ and then find a .015“ shim, bit not sure how much I like the idea of using thin shims in the timing chest. I don’t see the follower pivot being exposed to excessively high loads and all of the followers in the knackered bin don’t seem to show any excessive wear although that’s only a bushel sized sample.
I suppose if some engines lived with narrowed (lightened) pinions, the .030 of misalignment likely isn’t fatal, but can’t say I like that idea.