87ROCZ

iTrader: (3)

Ok...last summer I noticed that my rear drivers side wheel sorta "wobbles"...I never paid much attention to it because I was putting my car away for the winter.

Anyway... a couple of days ago I was out cruising and when I stopped my buddy that was driving behind me made a note of it... he said " Man is your wheel gonna fall off or what??" .. I said " What are ya talking about!"... he said " Well it looks like your wheel is wobbling"

So this evening I got my girlfriend to drive my car and I drove hers and sure enough the wheel looks like it's wobbling back and forth... when you are looking at it from behind the tire looks like it is moving side to side.

I can't feel it when I am driving either slow or fast...I had a new set of tires installed about a month ago and they balanced properly.

So my question is " Is it that my side axel is bent?" or " Is the rim bent?"

If the side axel was bent wouldn't I feel it in the wheel?

I am going to pull that rim and put it on the other side (which runs straight) and put the passenger side rear on the drivers side. I am thinking that if the rim is bent i will see it "wobble" on the passenger side. If it's the side axel then no matter what wheel I put on it it will still wobble?

Am I wrong in thinking this? Any other way to tell???

IHI

iTrader: (1)

This is kinda funny, I swapped out my drum brake 3.08? gear for a 3.42 posi disc set-up and I have the same exact wobble on the drivers side. We set a dial indicator up on it and it was the hub flange that was bent, I was thinking maybe previous owner side swiped a curb or something. When we first checked it out it drove all of us nuts, first we thought loose caliper was throwing something off some how, replaced with all new parts didn't solve anything, hogged out the center of the rim so it'd have more play as we thought for some reason it was'nt going on straight and wedging the rim crooked, then finally checked the flange and it was out of wack, not much, I think less then 1/8" at the flange, but taken that amount over the diameter of the tire and it multiplies very quickly. Like you said though, no shudder at speed, I did take the caliper completely off as it was constently squeaking at the bent part, actually car stops better cause that caliper had a leaky piston anyway. Hell, I drag race it every weekend and have'nt had a problem yet, I just hope it'll make it till winter so I can get the 9" hung.

ede

why don't you check it instead of asking here. it's hard for me, or anyone else, to tell for sure without checking it.

87ROCZ

iTrader: (3)

I am going to check but I thought that this was a "message board" ... and the purpose of this board is to get ideas and help from others.....I was just wanting to get some feedback from the other members. Guess this is not how you like to see your board ran....

Got a problem...go f*ck with it until you fix it and then come here and share your experiences...

RB83L69

Swap the 2 rear wheels. If the wobble moves to the other side, it's the wheel. If it stays, it's the axle. Axles often bend before the wheel does if the car slides into a curb sideways, and it doesn't take a very hard hit at all to toast one.

mystikkal_69

iTrader: (2)

i totally agree with that statement. don't ask, but believe me i should know. :sillylol: more than likely it is your axle that is bent.

87ROCZ

iTrader: (3)

My brother has an 84 Z29 that he is scrapping but it has the 10 bolt open diff rear end.

Mine is the 9 bolt posi rear end...

Will his axles fit my car?

87ROCZ

iTrader: (3)

That should read Z28

mystikkal_69

iTrader: (2)

nope. a 10 bolt axle will not work. i too have the bw 9 bolt. it must be from a 9bolt. you must get the correct axle. MAKE SURE TO GET THE AXLE FROM THE SIDE THAT YOU NEED. the passenger side axle is significantly longer than the driver's side. if it's a disc type get....disc type. if it's a drum type... get a drum type. the flange on the drum axle is larger than the flange on the disc axle. i learned this the hard way. trying to save you the trouble i went through.

87ROCZ

iTrader: (3)

Man I hope it isn't the axle.... that would suck large because finding a 9 bolt rear end before 88 (I believe the side axles changed in that year) with disc's and in good shape is next near to impossible!!

88 427 Camaro

That all depends on where you look. I may have some available.

Miles
Diff Solutions
www.9bolt.com

87ROCZ

iTrader: (3)

Sorry for the book here but....

Alright... this evening after doing an oil change I decided to jack up both sides and see what I was dealing with in regards to my bent axle/rim.

I jacked her up and put her on jack stands...started my car and put her in gear. Ok sure enough drivers side wobble wobble wobble.. passenger side whip straight (well a very very very small amount of play but nothing out of the ordinary). So I pull both wheels and swap 'em around. Put her back in gear and yup...wobble wobble but from what I could see it didn't look half as bad ...

Ok so it isn't the rim because if it was bent enough to cause the drivers side to wobble then it would have made the passenger side do the same thing.... sigghhhh, it must be either the side axle or an inside bearing.

So for ****s and giggles I decided to pull off the caliper so I could see the side axle in action all by itself... put her in gear and looked at the axle spinning around... yup sure enough ..looks like it's wobbling to me although not as bad....

Well here is where it gets confusing... I throw a few profanitys at my car and put her all back together and drive her out of the garage. So I get my girlfriend to take it for a spin and I drove her car so I could have a look at the wheel once again... Now it doesn't wobble!!!?!?!?!?!? WTF is that about!??!?! I mean it has a very very slight side to side action but absolutely no where near what it was last night!! Hell if I wasn't paying very close attention to the wheel I would never notice it!?!??!

Am I going nuts here or is there a logical explanation here? I spoke to my Dad who is a mechanic and he said the only thing he can think of is that when the garage that changed my tires put my wheels back on they could have messed that up by torquing down the lugs wrong (ie: not in the cross pattern like you should) thus causing the wheel to wobble?!?!? I do know that they torqued them down with what seemed like 1000 ft/lbs... it took a 1/2" breaker bar and all of my weight (220 lbs) to break the frigging lugs free!

I dunno... I'm lost but from what I see it looks fine now?

RB83L69

Your wheel and axle are both bent. When you put them together with the bends lined up, you get double wobble. When you put them together with the bends opposite each other, they cancel out, so to speak.

Try moving the wheel around the flange one bolt at a time; when you find the best place, mark the lug and the hole with paint or something so you can put it back the same way again whenever it comes apart. Then start looking for a rear end and a wheel.

87ROCZ

iTrader: (3)

That must be reason....but I have a question...

If the wheel that I had on the drivers side first (the one where I noticed the big wobble) was bent would I not see it wobbling when I put it on the passenger side? Because when I swapped the two around it never wobbled on the passenger side. And wouldn't the wheel that was on the passenger side which spun straight now wobble when put on the drivers side?

Anyway... I know that the drivers side axle is bent slightly because I could see it wobble ever so slightly when I had the wheel/rotor out of the way.

Whatever way I have it on now seems to work. This should suffice for now as it is not hurting anything..

When time/cash permit I will be looking for a complete new rear end (side axles included). I am thinking about a 9" Ford rear end as they seem to be the choice of everyone, maybe a Moser rear..... this won't be for some time in the future though