[KTL]

I think you're just fine putting the shims back the way they were originally installed, as long as the parallelism measurement checks out reasonably well.

I agree that the parallelism is a proper thing to check. However it's not absolutely critical that it be dead nuts on. I found on my '87 3.2L rebuild that the 4-5-6 cam sprocket had been installed backwards by somebody. The parallel measurement was way off (can't recall by memory) and the cam sprocket showed some side wear on it, which obviously should not come as a surprise. But my point is that the engine showed no ill effects in terms of noise or massive wear on the sprocket.

I only did the top end so I don't know how the intermediate shaft sprocket or the shaft bearings look. Engine continues to run fine to this day, 15K miles later.