Steering Wobble cured for me

[busheytrader]

Guys,

Thanks for the recent advice over my wheel wobbles.

I had to replace a leaking pair of Spax front shox to pass the MOT. I took the opportunity to replace all the front bushes with poly items including the subframe, renew the track rod ends and check tracking, fit new gaiters, dust covers on the ball joints and greenstuff brake pads. I also fitted a set of AlleyCat 5 spokes with virtually unused tyres that I bought from a TR7V8 owner.

(I'd always run my DHC 7V8 on the original steel wheels with NCT tyres to keep the car looking stock. Thin spacers were needed to clear the big brakes)

After fitting up all the above bits I got steering wobble through 65 - 70mph, made worse by braking. I got the wheels balanced but this didn't cure the wobbles, it just brought the threshold lower and made it worse.

I made enquiries about "on the wheel" balancing but no one appears to do it anymore. This forum suggested that the wheels should be dynamically balanced since static balancing isn't good enough. ( Have a look at this link for the run down. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_balan ... ic_Balance )

I was referred to a tyre specialist in Watford who said they knew everything about tyres and wheels inside out. Unfortunately the operative, Saxo, said that my wheels needed "PCD's" or "Cones" since the hole in the centre were too big to fit snugly on the hub and weren't centring properly on the hub, hence my problems. He then refitted my wheels and stripped the threads on one of the nuts. His boss, Evo, sent me to their Colindale branch as they stocked these cones.

8 miles and 30 minutes later, this is North West London, Scooby the manager advised that they threw out all these cone adaptors a long time ago but they could order some if they check out the wheels. He then said he hadn't seen such a good looking Fiat X19 in years. Enter a guy who hadn't started shaving yet but knew his stuff. Off with the wheels to measure what kind of cones were needed. The difference was 0.58mm at about 5c. Any smaller and the wheels might not fit on a hot day. After explaining about the wobbles he checked each wheel. They had only been statically balanced on the inner rims and were still out at that. The previous shop hadn't been bothered to fix stick on weights inside the wheel.

Anyway, driving home in traffic 3 hours after entering the first shop, the car immediately felt more stable at all speeds that were legal. A brief touch at 70mph on a dual carriageway displayed no vibrations. I just need less salt on the roads to give it a good run out.

So, appearances can be deceiving. Not everyone who says they're a specialist knows what they should do. Likewise another who looks like he's up past his bedtime, does the job properly.

Cheers,


Adam



TR7 V8 DHC Jaguar Solent Blue. 9.35cr Range Rover V8, Holley 390cfm, JWR Dual Port, 214 Cam, Lumention, Tubular Manifolds, Single Pipe Exh, 3.08 Rear, 200lb Spax & Solid Bushes, Anti- Dive, Granada Vented Discs & Calipers, Green Stuff, 4 Speed Rear Cylinders, Uprated Master Cylinder & Servo, AllyCat 5 Spokes. No Door Stickers. Mine since July 1986, V8 from 1991

[john 215]

Hi Adam,
Good news mate [:D] I have seen the type of thing you mean on some of the BMW's at work when non standard wheels have been fitted, normaly plastic but did have some alloy ones once that i needed to remove to replace a wheel bearing and they had corroded themselves to the hub [:(]
Cheers John

LIVE LIFE A QUARTER OF A MILE AT A TIME!
1979 3.5 FHC(STATUS PENDING!!)

1982 2.0 DHC NOW A 4.6,ON THE ROAD NOW KICKING AR5E !!!!
Read My Blog http://www.waringstowntr7s.co.uk/blogs/ ... hp/John215

[bottomtop]

Having my wheels dynamically balanced and re-wieghted fixed my wobbles to. They were at about 80-90kph.

[Hasbeen]

I drive over 100Km to a tyre place to get my on car balancing done,
you need a good one. I find I have to get it done about every
5/10,000Km if I want the steering wheel totally still at 100KPH,
[60MPH].

On my 7, with its normal hub centric wheels, the act of removing, &
refitting a front wheel can, [& mostly does], stuff the balance
unless the wheel is replaced in the same place on the hub.

I used to mark one stud, & the wheel with chalk, to enable the
correct placement. I now have centre pop marks on each wheel, & on
its correct stud, so I can't wipe the mark off by accident. Even
with this care, the wobbles can return, just by wheel R&R.

My 8 has Symons after market wheels, with conical wheel nuts, making
the wheels stud centric. Being a Triumph, with its high castor
setting, it is more sensitive to wheel balance than most cars, but
off car balancing works fine on it, & the wheels/tyres only requires
rebalancing once or twice during the short [my son drives this car
often] life of the front tyres.

Hasbeen

[FI Spyder]

I had wheel wobble at 55 - 60 mph. It would disappear if I took it back down below 50 then was OK if I didn't go over about 53mph. If I took it up to 65 or higher it would disappear. The tires where shot and I did the front end work required. This included springs, shocks, tie rod ends, ball joints (split rubber), steering bushing, rubber bushings changed to poly. I didn't touch the wheel bearings or their adjustments. New tires were balanced on factory alloys (off car) on a low speed computerized wheel balancer (not the old style high speed one I'd seen before.) It had a big LCD display that showed what kind of shimmey the wheel had and were to put the weight and how much. The stick on weights were put on inside of wheel. I have had the wheels off a number of times and doubt that I put them on the same way twice and no shimmey at any speed.



TR7 Spider - 1978 Spifire - 1976 Spitfire - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra

[BobD]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by busheytrader</i>


Guys,

Thanks for the recent advice over my wheel wobbles.

I had to replace a leaking pair of Spax front shox to pass the MOT. I took the opportunity to replace all the front bushes with poly items including the subframe, renew the track rod ends and check tracking, fit new gaiters, dust covers on the ball joints and greenstuff brake pads. I also fitted a set of AlleyCat 5 spokes with virtually unused tyres that I bought from a TR7V8 owner.

(I'd always run my DHC 7V8 on the original steel wheels with NCT tyres to keep the car looking stock. Thin spacers were needed to clear the big brakes)

After fitting up all the above bits I got steering wobble through 65 - 70mph, made worse by braking. I got the wheels balanced but this didn't cure the wobbles, it just brought the threshold lower and made it worse.

I made enquiries about "on the wheel" balancing but no one appears to do it anymore. This forum suggested that the wheels should be dynamically balanced since static balancing isn't good enough. ( Have a look at this link for the run down. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_balan ... ic_Balance )

I was referred to a tyre specialist in Watford who said they knew everything about tyres and wheels inside out. Unfortunately the operative, Saxo, said that my wheels needed "PCD's" or "Cones" since the hole in the centre were too big to fit snugly on the hub and weren't centring properly on the hub, hence my problems. He then refitted my wheels and stripped the threads on one of the nuts. His boss, Evo, sent me to their Colindale branch as they stocked these cones.

8 miles and 30 minutes later, this is North West London, Scooby the manager advised that they threw out all these cone adaptors a long time ago but they could order some if they check out the wheels. He then said he hadn't seen such a good looking Fiat X19 in years. Enter a guy who hadn't started shaving yet but knew his stuff. Off with the wheels to measure what kind of cones were needed. The difference was 0.58mm at about 5c. Any smaller and the wheels might not fit on a hot day. After explaining about the wobbles he checked each wheel. They had only been statically balanced on the inner rims and were still out at that. The previous shop hadn't been bothered to fix stick on weights inside the wheel.

Anyway, driving home in traffic 3 hours after entering the first shop, the car immediately felt more stable at all speeds that were legal. A brief touch at 70mph on a dual carriageway displayed no vibrations. I just need less salt on the roads to give it a good run out.

So, appearances can be deceiving. Not everyone who says they're a specialist knows what they should do. Likewise another who looks like he's up past his bedtime, does the job properly.

Cheers,


Adam



TR7 V8 DHC Jaguar Solent Blue. 9.35cr Range Rover V8, Holley 390cfm, JWR Dual Port, 214 Cam, Lumention, Tubular Manifolds, Single Pipe Exh, 3.08 Rear, 200lb Spax & Solid Bushes, Anti- Dive, Granada Vented Discs & Calipers, Green Stuff, 4 Speed Rear Cylinders, Uprated Master Cylinder & Servo, AllyCat 5 Spokes. No Door Stickers. Mine since July 1986, V8 from 1991
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Bob D.
Shock tower braces fixed wobble in my race car..

[busheytrader]

It really wound me up that I had to have 3 attempts to get the wheels balanced properly, which included this final fiasco. Working abroad during the week didn't leave much time at home to get this sorted. Plus it was always in the back of my mind that I might have missed something when rebuilding the front end.

The 14" wheel design doesn't allow for weights to be attached to the outer rim so the fitter should fit stick on weights from behind the spokes. Obviously the first two tyre shops never did the job properly. The vibrations were so bad that the headlight pods were shaking themselves senseless. Under braking at 65mpg the steering wheel was flapping about by up to 45 degrees[:0].

I'm now looking for a Compomotive wheel centre since the wheels only came with three. Anyone got a spare?

When it's time to renew the tyres it will probably be cheaper to buy a good set of 15" MGF alloys complete with nearly new tyres. There are so many being offered on the market on ebay etc

Adam