Tingler, called it the Death wobbles, GOD did feel like it! O.K. I hit a skunk about a month ago. Just about three weeks ago (This has happened twice now) at very low speeds 15mph or less , if I hit a ruff patch in the road. My front tires wobble like a fish tail. WTF . This has never happened before and I have at least 1500 miles on it thus far. Is my Pitman arm loose? Too much play in the steering. I really need your help on this one. Thanks Guys What causes this? How Can I fix it?
\ my buddy's 32 did this a couple months ago....new car....new stuff.....except for the shackles......you could hit a little hump in the road.....and the thing would get a shake in the front.....tried a couple different pairs of wheels and tires....didn't help....not sure if it totally went away ...but we found the steering box had no grease.....and the shackles were in a pretty good bind....he switched to adjustable perches....and new shackles....which he said helped a bunch ....trying to get him to switch to a super slide instead of the monoleaf.....so he can adjust the ride better..... as for your ride.....when the front shakes.....does it shake the steering wheel.....are the draglinks parallel....to each other and the ground....or if a side steer ...does the suspension and draglink move in the same arch....is there any movement in the spindle and kingpin and axle....? bumpsteer sucks....brandon
Yeah man, thats a thought. Check your kingpins....Have you been greasing them up since you got it on the road? Did you grease them in the first place? Just checking.....ya never know. Those kingpin bushings need greased a lot. Check and see if you have any slop there. Its easy to tell, just jack the front up and try and push the top of the wheel towards the engine. If it goes, you got some slop there. Another hint. Stop hitting skunks.
This has been happening on the Fly for a while. I have new king pins, new tie rods,the right kingpin inclination, etc. The only thing that solved mine was a So-Cal steering dampner. It's all good now.
We put a panhard bar on the front, with all new parts it still keeps the shackles from doing a "wiggle".
Thanks once again. The steering doesn't move just the tire/wheels. I'll take the front off and check all the stuff. It most likly needs it anyway. It will make a good winter project. Any more suggestion would be appreciated. Roothawg How much was that part? socal is big money but if it helps it would be worth it. Thanks. BS
This is really common in 4x4's. What kind of front suspension are you running? (take a pic) Like mentioned, worn kingpins can contribute, so can panhard (track bar) bushings) Check the wheel bearings as well. Sometimes there can be play in the steering box, but it's usually not all that big of a contributor. Check the tie rod ends as well, if they have any play at all, it will seem like the car is coming apart.
Steering dampers are nice, but often misused. They can 'mask' problems, that can get really out of control, and cause wear on other parts before you recognize. Using one to dampen slop in your steering, is not the best practice, save adding one until you get the problems addressed. No need in hiding a potential safety issue. They're intended to reduce driver fatigue. Often called 'steering wander', which can be caused by rutted roads and/or larger tires. They'll also help a quick ratio steering box be a bit more manageable.
I'm running a poise front spring most the front end is front poise. I have a 4" dropped axle. The only old part are the split wishbones. The steering box was used and not rebuilt. Steering colunm is lime works. Here are so pics I'm at work right now(I'm teaching class as we speak) I love being a prof.
Snap some more detailed pics this evening, as high res as possible so we can see where your potential problem areas may be. Try to get a pic of the goods behind the grille as well. We can keep tossing out suggestions, but without seeing everything there is to work with, it's all just going to be broad ideas.
I have had to deal with this a couple of times in the past and both times it was cured by reducing the amount of caster in the front end. It happens to cars with alot of caster, sometimes you'll see a car at the drags have a front end shimmy at the end of a burnout. I don't quite understand the dynamics involved but back in the 80's when I first got my Willys coupe running it would drive fine at most speeds but if I hit a bump at about 30mph it would get a front end shimmy that wouldn't go away unless you stopped the car. I reduced the caster with wedges and it went away.
Yeah, I was gonna suggest checking the caster too, but I don't know how hitting a skunk would have caused the caster to be out. I suppose stranger things have happened though.
I just went thru this also At about 40 MPH the dreaded wobble! every part on my front end was new except for the steering box (39 ford) after checking over everything and finding nothing wrong I started playing with toe adjustments and cured about 95 % of it. I can sometimes feel it trying to wobble but its pretty much cured.
Identical to the problem I had with my T (suicide tube axle, hairpins, F1 box, 7 degree caster)... big harmonic wobble at 25-30 mph if I hit a bump. I kept narrowing it down from wheel balancing to bearing to kingpin, it never completely went away. What kind of caster/toe in are you running?
I went through this with the HEAP. It would go crazy at about 40 MPH after hitting a rough place in the road. We kept adding toe-in and going over the same bumpy section. The problem kept getting worse. We finally curred it with a small amount of toe-out. Turns out this was an old/common problem with light rods and T-buckets. Sam
A steering dampener will stop it. But like others said it's just a band aid. Make sure evrything is tight...king pins...tie rods...steering box. Something is a little loose. Clark
Bias Ply's try running approx. 1/8" toe in and 1/16" toe in for radials.... Any play in the steering box? Too much or not enough caster may give you this problem as well, just think of the old shopping cart in the grocery store which does not have enough caster, front wheels wobble like hell.... As you probably know 7 degrees of caster is good for the street, pop out the king pin and check your caster on top of the axle....
Balance the front tires,wheels, brakes and hub as one assembly on the car using a old strobe balancer like ammermac or hunter. This worked for me on two different projects. Hope it works for you.
set your caster at 4 degrees,i work in the 4x4 industry,this is what i do to about every newer jeep that comes in with a death shake.
dinking around with your caster and ect might "cure it " and a dampner might hide it. but if it was totaly fine before with all those miles on it id just start tightening everything i could fine. a skunk shouldnt knock that all out of wack. i agree somethings lose
I have a wobble too. It comes and goes depending on the speed. it happens during acceleration and de-accelration at around 1900 to 2100 RPMs. Above or below thoes RPMs it is smooth as silk. Any Ideas...Thanks It has a dropped axel, and a chassis engineering 4-bar setup, pan hard bar, radial tires with steal wheels, and a vega steering box, used but tight. DeuceDog
I would find the oldest front end shop in your area and have the front end aligned before I did anything else. Looseness can be checked easy with the wheels off the ground and checking for movement in all directions, with all components. It doesn't matter what mix of components that you have, it still has to be aligned properly to track.
The Jalopy Journal
