Hello All!

I'm very new here, and new to Third Gen life in general. I just bought a 83' Z28 Camaro from my mechanic two days ago. I took it for a drive after the new clutch was put in and experienced small vibration at about 30 MPH and significant violent shaking through the steering wheel at 50. I brought it back and they checked all the wheels and tires and balanced them. It's still very apparent. He thought it was just flat spots and they would warm up and even out (he claims he never had these problems). I've probably driven 100 miles plus now and still shaking. The car sat on it's tires for two years outside in the New England weather, the fronts partially deflated and water has to be emptied out of them and the rears stayed pretty inflated I believe. I would think at this point the tires are just bad and need to be replaced... and it seems like the more sinister offenders would be bent axle, driveshaft, motor and tranny mounts. It does have new ball joints. Thanks for reading and any help would be appreciated!

 

Pretty easy to tell tires from drive shaft... one the shaking occurs at wheel speed, (wubbawubbawubbawubba) and the other occurs at drive shaft speed which is about 3 times faster. (HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM)

Tires that get sat on end up with flat spots. Most likely they're fornicated. Since most any GM 5-bolt wheels fit these cars, borrow a pr, and see if it helps.

 

Shaking through the steering wheel could be the tires (if the shop has a road-force-balance machine this kind of stuff is easy to spot where a regular spin balancer will never pick it up) but don't forget that blown out front struts can cause a MASSIVE shake in the car that is easily felt through the wheel. Worn out idler arm is another common culprit, although it's gotta be REALLY gone to cause a shake.

 

I had an 84 that would go into a bad death wobble from time to time. The unibody/frame section was broken where the steering gearbox bolted on.

 

Hey everyone! Thanks for your input! I took the car back to the mechanic/seller today with two new front tires and when we took the right front tire off the wheel, it was FULL of water! He said he put his son in charge of checking that... but apparently he didn't. :P

We put the new ones on and it drives like a dream. Still a little vibration from the back end but I think it's just from those old tires, which I'll replace as soon as I can. Thank you everyone for your help!

Is there a thread I should post to for "Look what I got?" lol