I have a 1940 Willys Coupe with a straight front axle. When I get on the car really hard and try to stop it the front wheels feel like that are fixing to come off the car and the steering wheel shakes real bad. Could the problem be the amount of castor that I have in the front axle? The king pins are in good shape and the tie rod ends too are in good shape. Checked the u bolts that hold the axle to the spring and they are tight and ok. Any help on this problem and any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks to the H.A.M.B and all of the people that make it great! Gary
The problem you have experienced makes me think of four possible places to check,, ,,check your front wheel bearings,,,make sure they are snug,, ,, check your toe in ,,check your steering box,,,does it have any play? ,,check all your ty-rod ends and make sure they are tight. HRP
sometimes, just changing the front tires, will will fix the problem... I agree with the others, the steerting damper should fix the problem.
If a Straight axle front is GOOD & TIGHT it shouldnt need a Damper. Check toe in for sure & make sure Tie Rod ends are good & you have no "Slop" in your drag link. What degree do you have the front set at ? What tires ? are they new ? Post a pic of your set up if you can ...
Did a search on here as I was tolded to do. The search was called "death wobble." Has a lot of good info on it. Should have done this in the first place. As usual, the H.A.M.B comes through! Man are we a lucky bunch to have all this info at the fingertips. Thanks to all I think I know where to start looking for my problems. While I was cleaning the chrome wheels and removing the rust I took the wheel balancing weights off. Forget about doing that. Gary
For what it's worth I had this type of problem with a stock Willys axle. Everything was tight...new kingpins, spindle bushings, Tie rods, etc. I started with a lot of caster thinking it would make the car stable at speed. As soon as you would hit any sort of bump it would set up a shimmy that would get progressively worse unless you came to a stop. I started playing with caster. Tried a little more and it was undriveable, so I started taking it out. That made an improvement. I ended up with about 5 deg. and it has been fine ever since. These came out of the factory without any dampers-so I was determined to make it work. I do have a little slop in the front end now...due to normal wear on the bushings and drag link, steering box. Still no more shimmy. -Scott
Good post,..... and food for thought that "might" apply to the previous Ford transverse problems as well.
Having owned a few straight axle cars, and not seeing any photos to know if there is a glaring design flaw with the steering, I would suggest checking two things; Caster, should be around 5 degrees for the street and EVEN on BOTH sides. Since you said it happens under heavy braking I believe the axle may not be straight, or square, in the car. The wheel that is further forward will start to accept braking loads faster and then as the rearward wheel starts to brake it will create a wobble. It doesn't take much of a misalignment of the axle for this to happen. While you're at it, make sure your rear axle is square also.
What kind of brakes are on the front axle? Anything warped or out of round could cause this. But you probably figured out the cure when you realized you took the balancing weights off the wheels, eh?
What kind of front brakes are you running? Because you say it happens when you stop hard, it sounds like a set of warped rotors OR your rotors have hard spots in them......
Thanks guys for all the help on the front end. Took my wheels and tires down a had them balanced. Put back on the car. Didn't change a thing. This is a 40 Willys Coupe with an orginal straight front axle. When the car was built in 1964 the guy put a set of raising blocks under the spring and axle perch cutting them at an angle to give the car about six degrees castor. Real neat deals I tell you. I had some new u-bolts made and took the raising block out while I was doing this and when I reinstalled them I put them in backwards. Stupid me! I turned the blocks around and drove the car and it solved the problem. Live and Learn! The front end stablilizer from SoCal sounds like a great idea. I am gonna order one and put it on my car. Thanks again to the H.A.M.B. and all of the great people! Gary
The operative word here is "SHOULDN'T". We've gone over this dozens of times and the conversation is always the same. When you've exhausted the possibilities and and the problem persists, and your interested in actually enjoying your ride, try a dampener. Several million new VW's came off the ***embly line with steering dampeners so I guess it is possible they are useful. Frank[/quote] Frank, Very true & having owned MANY VWs i agree... But a VW front end is VERY different from an early solid axle. How many of these Early cars ever came with a Damper ?? I just feel if it didnt need one when new, & MILLIONS of solid axle cars never needed one.... Why mask a problem with a Cheasy looking Damper on it ? I see he found the problem & fixed it WITHOUT a damper. My own opinion anyways.. But solid axle cars are so nice looking without bolt on VW Dampers on them.
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