ok well last night after the local car meet we did our usual thing and head up the street to go eat. so went to speed up a little and right after i got over 40mph the whole front end started to shake violently. ive never had this happen before and not exactly where to start.

any help is greatly appreciated.

 

tighten (torque) lug nuts and the spacers lug nuts

check for damaged tire/rebalance

 

wheel bearings, tie rod, lost a wheel weight, broke a belt in a tire

 

forgot to mention its a side to side vibration not up and down.

wheels are balanced, lug nuts were tight, theres no play when i wiggle the wheel side to side and tires are fine.

 

ok well pulled the front wheels off and checked the lugs on the spacers (tight), checked bushings (everything looked good with no play), put wheels back on and tightened pretty good (dont have a torque wrench at the moment), my power steering pump was leakin so i changed that today. took it up the street and got up to about 60 with no vibrations. hit the brakes and it vibrated like as if the rotors were warped (just got turned and installed new pads last week). went up another street and went a little faster and no vibrations at all at speed or braking.

guess ill drive it around some more and see. i think the steering coupler bushing might be bad.

 

Check the tire rods and control arms.

 

tie rods look good and have no play. control arms look good although i can see the control arm bushings that well. i know my shocks are pretty much blown.

 

Could be the shocks. I'm not an expert though. Not even close.

 

check caliper bolts may be loose man , had happen myself

 

been reading up on this stuff. found this on another forum.

Jack the front end up, shake your wheels @ 9 and 3, tie rods, pitman and idler arm, @ 6 and 12 for ball joints, and @ 2 and 7 for bearings.

so i decided to lift up 1 side of the car and see what kind of movement i get.

heres the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y3O_tR16Go

 

lay under the car and have a buddy shake the wheel, with that much movement you'll be able to see what's loose

 

well got rid of most the vibration. went and had the front wheels re-balanced and man they were way off from what the original place had balanced them at. hopefully that fixes a good part of it. next onto rebuilding all the suspension.

 

Mike,

I watched your video and that seems like a shitload of play.. I don't think it's just your wheel balance.

Give this a try: Pull the dust cap off your hub and have a look at your spindle nut. If your cotter pin is missing or broken, or the nut is excessively loose, that's obviously a problem. If you're ambitious, you can perform a Wheel Bearing Adjustment, per the service manual:

"Tighten spindle nut to 12 lb ft while turning the wheel assembly forward by hand to fully seat the bearings. Back off the nut to the just loose position. Hand tighten the spindle nut. Loosen spindle nut just enough that either hole in the spindle lines up with a slot in the nut (not more than 1/2 flat). Install new cotter pin. Bend the ends of the cotter pin against nut, cut off extra length to ensure ends will not interfere with the dust cap."

It then describes the acceptable amount of play to be between .001" to .005", which is very little. My thumbnail is ~.020 thick.

Good luck, man.

 

i agree, that looks like a LOT of play there.

 

will have to try that. cars goin back to the body shop tomorrow so they get do more work on my hood. so probably when i get it back ill give that a look.

 

alright Brian i just did what you listed there and i think the play is coming from the ball joint now. im not goin to be driving the car much for the next 2 weeks so ill probably start pulling things apart to start rebuilding the suspension.

 

hey dude..mine did that a while ago..changed out the wheel bearings with timkins stuff from the zone and it went away ..and thats A LOT of play just as a 2cents

 

I think it is your wheel bearings!

 

yerp ^^

oh btw..your car is raw dude

 

Agreed. Raw.

 

+3
Glad you figured out your vibration problem, that vid looked like you had lots of play.

 

just as a side note..my bearings were a bitch to get out and get in..took the better part of a day but we werent working fast..definitely a job tho..who knows tho, yours could be easier..

 

I took the outter drivers side one out yesterday easily. Looked pretty worn. Goin to probably buy new ones today after work. Cars at the body shop gettin more work on my hood.

Thanx for the compliments.

 

when you go to buy new bearings (and all your front end/steering parts really) please spend the extra $$$ and get timken/moog/namebrand parts, it'll save you having to replace it all again sooner than later and it's way cheaper than having to repair the car, or worse YOU after a crash due to failed parts.

I'm excited to see your hood finished, it's gonna be kick ***