I need some help with some front end issues. 1931 Tudor Sedan with a Superbell dropped front axle and hairpins. SBC, no fenders, no hood, and only the bare bones on the car. 32 frame. 1. The ride is pretty harsh and I was wondering how many leafs others are running 2. Just recently I noticed at about 60 mph the frontend gets a little shaky. If I slow down and then return to speed it goes away sometimes and sometimes not. Other times it doesn't happen even when I run 75mph. I would like some advice on things to check and where to start looking.
Check your wheel balance at a tire shop. If you can find someone who does it on the car so much the better.
toe out a 1/32 - 1/16, make sure the caster is 2.5 to 5 degrees . My willys is driven daily and has been beaten weekly. Had the death wobble when I first got it together. Listened to a pro on them and damn he's good. My Willys drives like a go kart. Haven't had a wobble since.
What firingorder1 said. But to cut to the chase, most end up to be tire/wheel related...even if there isn't a visual indication. Change tires/wheels front to rear, or another set to check. Of course, just one loose steering link can only increase the problem.
I run 15 x 10 rears so swapping to the front might not work! LOL Maybe I'll see what else I have to throw on the front for a test run.
I agree with mullins,I had to go with 0 toe in on my 32,my buddy went with toe out on his track T to solve the problem.
I've always heard 7 to 8 degrees ???? I'm running at 9 degrees and it rides very nice even at high speeds
x2, I set mine a 8 degrees and have been close to 100 on the strip without a shake whatsoever. I'd start by laying your caster back to 8.
I had a similar problem at 60 MPH and my caster was too positive. Try to get it in that 4 - 8 positive degree range... Also, I had Firestones from Coker that were out of round and needed to be shaved to get them round.
My truck is at 1/32 toe out on purpose, Haven't had a wobble since. Tires are wearing fine. 1/32 isn't much, just enough to cure the problem. My Caster was at 7.5 and he shimmed it to 5. It's does great. I drive the willys all the time, had it out on the expressway just a couple days ago.
What are you running for shocks? How much air pressure in the front tires? Any play in the steering box?
Toe out??? You guys are defying basic physics if you think that works. The guy hasn't told us anything about toe or caster yet on his problem car. Or tire pressure or balance. All of which could contribute to his problem. But here's the fun part, it could be just one.
Toe in 1/8th. Caster is at 6*. All new front end, steering, etc. The tires are radials (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know) 195/60R15 fronts on 15x7 wheels. Maybe a pothole took them out of balance so I will check that and I will try a "thinner" "taller" tire also. I hear that too much backspace and a wide front tire can cause issues. I think I want to remove a leaf or two also because teh ride is harsh. My car is missing half the weight so the full spring pack might be a little much.
I know this has been beaten to "deth," but why not try a $40 steering dampener, for the time being anyway. It won't take you long to install it & you can drive your car for the time being & deal with all of the other **** when the snow flies. There's a high probability that it will cure the your shimmy.
Just on the harsh ride subject, you can eliminate it almost entirely by softening the rear end. MoFo (In avatar) was chronically harsh as puchased. He had 8 leaf parallel springs and monroe gas shocks in the rear and a full pack transverse spring in the front with the little chrome shocks. I took 3 alternate leaves out of the front and turned the shocks up the right way 3 alternate leaves came out of the back packs and changed out the monroe's for a new set of light oil shocks.(Tube type) What a change! Still firm but smooth. As for the wobble, my money's on rim/tyre issues maybe combined with too much play in the front end components. King pins, steering box / balljoints / bearings /shocks.....check everything.
I checked everything again last night and everything in the front is tight. (It is a Superbell dropped axle, vega box, and all the components have less than 3000 miles of use). I am thinking tire/rim issue too. It wasn't doing it earlier this year so I think I just might be out of balance somewhere or a slipped belt in one of the radials. I guess now I have a good excuse to tell the wife when I order my new tires! LOL
I started to experience the "death wobble" in my model a after 2 years of driving it. It seemed to come when I went over a bump and would continue till I slowed down or apllied the brakes. Other times I could travel 200 miles and it would be fine. Then a bump a slower speeds and it would re appear. Thought it might be in need of more caster so added adjustable perches and bumped it from 2 to 6 degrees. Still there and it maybe made it worse. I had checked everything for looseness and nothing seemed to be out of whack. I then had my wife crank the wheels over hard and I watched the front end from underneath. When it reached a full turn the Vega box seemed to move. Close inspection revealed the threaded spud at the top of the mount had broken loose. Really hard to see till I memoved the box. I repaired it welding a tube in the frame and a used long bolt. All is well now. Just thought I would post this in case it might be of use to someone in the future.
Thanks for the info everyone. I think I found the issue and I will update as soon as I have a chance to test drive!
I believe it was a bad combination of a few things. 1. The right front tire seems to have a broken belt. I noticed a crack the way across the WWW and can feel a "lump" when I run my hand across the tread. 2. At some point in the cars life the p***enger side hairpin must have come loose and wore thru the sleeve going thru the frame, so the rear hairpin could move around about a 3/8". I drilled out the old sleeve and welded in a replacement. I thru my OT wheels and tires back on the front and rechecked some basic measurements. I am still going to drop some plumb-bobs and run some chalklines to double check everything and then I will hit the highway for some testing. Seeing the hairpin mount and the hearing a t******* noise from the driver's front tire leads me to believe I found the problem. I'll no more later this week.
Toe in is not the answer. very slight toe out and aprox 8 deg caster . toe in will make it darty at speed. two much caster will give you a low speed wobble around 12 deg. sound like a tire balance issue. Ran staight axle race cars for years.
use a straight edge across the tire at the mid point on both sides measure across the tire and transfer that length to the straight edge in front of the tire measure the begininig and end of that demension from side to side .to check your toe ,quick and dirty check. 1/32 to 1/16
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