Frt. end shake

L

Louis

Well-known member
My 31 coupe is an older rest [1973]. it steers great, steering is tight, when jacked up all the rod end's feel tight and all the parts look like they are new, new tire's in 2010. after rest. the car did set untill 2010 when i got it.
A few times when im doing about 5 to 8 mph and hit a small bump the steering will start to shake all the way to a full stop, it has never done this at a higher speed and has only done this three times in the last 700 miles.....Thank's for any advice.
 
Make sure the lugs are tight; if that doesn't change anything, try rotating the tires...

Or at least jack-up each wheel and spin it to see if the wheel is bent / out of round...
 
do you have the rubber radius ball? That's a common cause....replace it with an original style metal cap kit. A worn ball can do it as well. Another spot to check is the steering box bolts: if they're loose it will shimmy very badly.
 
Jack it up and check the king pins, also check the wishbone ball mounting, also front spring center bolt. JMO
Paul in CT
 
Louis, ...Jack, Pat, et al all have given you good advice but might I suggest you also check the pitman arm bolt. This is common cause of that too.

.
 
LOUIS ................
I had that "shimmy" in my '34. I tighten up the tie-rod ends, by 1/2 turn and I haven't had it since.
MIKE :)
 
The couple of times I've experienced shimmy I eventually traced it to slackish track rod ends. check the ends of the track rods and the ends of the drag link too, if you detect any slack tighten them up as Mike above suggests. I eventually got round to replacing them what were menat to be wondefrul spherical balls had become ovoid egg shapes. The A is a wonderfully forgiving car.
 
I had a bad shimmy problem at low speeds and it was the spring perch nuts.

mike
 
as you can see from what has been said here, any looseness in the steering geometry will contribute to shimmy. Sometimes its just one little thing, often its several in unison.
 
All good suggestions but, if you find all parts are tight and good, check the toe in. If the wheels are wider at the front or equal in front to the rear (straight) the wheels will chase each other and the shimmy begins. This shimy will cause the steering wheel to almost jerk out of your hands at worst and voilently at best. The toe should be 1/8" wider at the rear of the front wheels than the front of the wheels. Check this and see what happens when correct.
 
James Rogers said:
All good suggestions but, if you find all parts are tight and good, check the toe in. If the wheels are wider at the front or equal in front to the rear (straight) the wheels will chase each other and the shimmy begins. This shimy will cause the steering wheel to almost jerk out of your hands at worst and voilently at best. The toe should be 1/8" wider at the rear of the front wheels than the front of the wheels. Check this and see what happens when correct.
Click to expand...

Today i put it on jack's and ckecked everything agin, all is tight, when i spun the frt. tires the lt. frt. did have more of a wobble then the rt. frt. so i swaped it out to the lt. rear which seem's to have less wobble when i spin it, i also checked the tire press and found them to be anywhere from 25 to 28 psi, i serviced them all to 35 psi. i will drive it tommorow and check it, if it is still there i will do as you suggest. Thank you all very much.
 
Frequently the cause of front end shimmy is the “sum of all warn steering components.” Many good ideas have been suggested and should be taken into consideration.

The one area I do not see mentioned yet is the front wheel bearings. At a minimum I would suggest repacking the front wheel bearings with a high quality wheel bearing grease! Then correctly set the castle nut cotter key.

Better yet you may want to spend $75 and buy all new “inner bearings and races” and the “outer bearings and races.” Also the dust seals and the all important special “front hub grease retainer washer.” This washer must have the anti rotation tab. Next a great quality wheel bearing grease.

Reset with the aid of a torque wrench 5-8 lbs and back off. Also if the cotter pin does not fit satisfactory file the retainer washer as needed. Each notch of the castle nut is worth .010”

I hope this helps some.
 
As i said above i swaped the left frt. with the left rear because when on jacks when i spun the left frt. it seemed to have a slight wobble to it. i also serviced the tire's to 35 psi.
i just got back from a test drive, i hit as many slight bumps at the same speed as before that caused the wobble, I also tryed it at diff. speed's, so far no wobble.
but i only drove it about 5 miles, i guess time will tell.
Thank you all for your helpfull information.
 
I have a 31 AA, so I am not sure if the A spoke wheels can be balanced, But I was able to have my Budd steel wheels balanced and this really helped a lot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top