Front End wobble

G

ghenry

New member
At times when applying the brakes the front end starts to wobble and doesn't stop until I come to a complete stop. It does not happen all the time but is becoming more frequent. Any ideas what I can do to correct this?
 
One possible cause could be wear on the wishbone ball which decreases the caster setting of the frontend. Sometimes putting a cup washer on top of the ball in the socket will bring the ball down enough to increase the caster and stop the wobble. Not hard to try this fix to see if it does the trick.
 
I find a lot of A's with loose pitman arm, they have to be real tight. Also loose ends on the drag link. Have some one turn the steering wheel while you watch those parts, You will probable find the problem.
 
Any and all of the above. Now would be a good time to check each part of the front suspension and steering. Take things apart, clean, inspect, replace/rebuild as necessary and rebuild. Be sure all the ball in the system are round with no flat spots at all.
 
a common problem.

Check everything, like Mike says.

What has not been mentioned yet is the notorious rubber radius ball repair kit. When the rubber gets bad, they cause wobble. The cure is the correct, original design, new (as in not a worn junk part) radius ball kit. If the cups on that touch when its all bolted up, then the ball is worn, requiring a shim, or to be welded up and filed round to the original 1.5 inch diameter. Most common in my experience, is loose pittman arm or steering box mounting bolts. But, as said it could be anything or a combination of several things.
 
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Loose or worn/damaged front wheel bearings can also cause this. There are many areas of the front suspension system that can be suspect, as mentioned above.
 
Is there a Ford part number for this wobble? Back in the day it seemed to be standard equipment on any Ford that had spent a few thousand miles on washboard roads (which beat suspension parts up pretty quickly)!
 
Hi Ghenry,
I see this is your first post. Welcome to the forum and welcome to the hobby. Set your front axle up on jack stands. Then, with a friend wobbling the front tires back and forth, you get under the car and look for where the lost motion (free play) is coming from. Have a look at the steering box, if it is loose you'll see it, and from your description I would place money on that source. In any case, it will be a lot wiser to properly diagnose the problem than to start throwing parts at it. Good Luck!
 
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This is known as the "Death Wobble" and can be a result of one cause or a few things all at once. My coupe was doing this dance and it turned out to be the drivers side kingpin and some other things that were all approaching worn out at once.
Terry
 
Also check for loose wheel bearings.I drove a guy's Model A that had very sloppy steering and the death wobble. First thing I did was turn the left axle nut 2 1/2 turns and the right nut 1 1/2 turns. It made it steer like a new car. Spin the wheel while you tighten the axle nut just a little snug, then lift the wrench and very lightly snug it. This is about the same tightness as a 12" adjustable wrench placed on the nut in the 3 o'clock position.

Sometimes bearings have spun the races in the hub, and this will be another problem to fix. The main thing is to get the axle up on jack stands and check it out as Chris mentioned.
 
I had this problem. Like it has been said, check everything. Mine turned out to be and old worn rubber ball. Replaced it with original style repo parts plus a shim and no more issue. Good luck nothings more frustrating than a car that's not dependable
 
Mine did this occasionally and I had to jerk the steering wheel hard to the left or right. I am hoping that since I am doing a front end rebuild of some 80 year old parts it will go a way and it will stop and ride like a dream.

Oh, by the way welcome to the Barn and please post some pics of your car.

Mike
 
I want to thank everyone who responded to my question. As soon as it gets fixed, I will let you know what the problem is and what was done to correct it.
 
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