Bad steering wobble

Ian

Ian

Club Member
Got a rather bad wobble through the steering wheel, not sure what is causing it. All arms and joints are rock solid and I just had my wheels rebalanced, rack is now mounted well after fitting the correct bushes. I was hoping the new bushes would solve my issue.

Tracking is toeing out slightly but its even on both sides and should not be enough to cause this kind of problem.


Any ideas because I'm stuck.
 
jonbills

jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
What have you tried Ian? Swapped wheels front to back? Check run-out in your disks? What setup is the compression rod?
 
Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

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Staff member
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Compression bushes need to be fairly tight - I've had a wobble on track when braking that I cured by tightening the bushes.

Try Toe-in as spec.

Is one wheel damaged - I've had that too on a secondhand Wolfrace where the inner rim edge wasn't round.

Good Luck
 
Ian

Ian

Club Member
Haven't swapped the wheels but as the wheels were balanced this shouldn't help anything, tyres look normal also.

There is slight run out in the discs I think but as I can't feel it when braking It can't be that bad.


Compression rods are rock solid as they are T3 rose jointed ones with very little mileage on them since fitting

Can't get toe in, have run out of adjustment on the arms (from car being lower than stock I think) something I need to work out a solution to.


Wheels are not very old and there are no signs of damage.



I have spacers on the front, going to try removing these in case that's the problem.
 
Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

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Ian said:
Haven't swapped the wheels but as the wheels were balanced this shouldn't help anything, tyres look normal also.

There is slight run out in the discs I think but as I can't feel it when braking It can't be that bad.


Compression rods are rock solid as they are T3 rose jointed ones with very little mileage on them since fitting

Can't get toe in, have run out of adjustment on the arms (from car being lower than stock I think) something I need to work out a solution to.


Wheels are not very old and there are no signs of damage.



I have spacers on the front, going to try removing these in case that's the problem.
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Ian, what angle are your lower arms at when the car is on the ground - you don't want them pointing upwards to the strut.

Tyres - are they round?

Have you jacked the car up and spun the wheels? Maybe your long wheel studs are not aligned correctly and with your spacers the wheel isn't central on the hub?
 
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R

RIDDLER

Well-Known Forum User
I had the same problem. Despite having the wheels checked for trueness and refurbished, and having them balanced AGAIN, problem persisted. So then I had the tie-rod bushes replaced with new polyurethane ones and - hey presto - problem solved! Don't know if these are the bushes you had done?
 
Ian

Ian

Club Member
Lower arms still point down slightly.

Tyres so no obvious deformation.

I have spun the wheels but need to do it again and have a closer look.




Tie rods are solid metal joints, no movement there.



Removed spacers today, think it may have been better but haven't done enough motorway driving today to say for sure.
 
tel240z

tel240z

Club Member
I would go for wheels eccentric on the hubs I suspect no spigot rings fitted , so just relying on the studs, I did do a thread on this a while ago
 
neil240z

neil240z

Club Member
Hi,

After working in a tyre garage for years and seeing just about everything, if the wheel is bolted square on to the hub and they are balanced correctly and classic wheels require more work which some fitters can be a little lazy with, then it could really only be... a tyre that has gone out of shape ( difficult to see unless you spin it on a balancing machine) a buckled wheel or a badly warped brake disc which would be noticeable under braking, everything else including slight play wouldn't affect shaking at speed.

Good luck
 
johnymd

johnymd

Club Member
The 240/260 front hubs have a tapered rough cast surface that the wheel cannot accurately centre on. It was never designed to do so. You can have a aflat machined on the standard hub to allow the use of spigot rings and this would be the ideal approach. I had to remove material from the inside of my rota's just to get them to go on the hub. It's always worth checking that the wheels are touching the hub mounting face and not held away by the hub tapper. This is a very common problem but not that well documented. If you run a 5 mm spacer then you won't have this problem. On my wheels, because I've ground away a small amount of material from the inside of the wheel and its not a perfect machined surface so I have to make sure the wheel balancer knows this and centres the wheel by clamping on the face and not the back. If I don't then I get terrible vibration through the stearing wheel.

Just something to consider
 
zNathan

zNathan

Well-Known Forum User
Sorry I'm a bit late the the party - I had your problem with my Z and it was fixed with exactly what John said above. My Rota's have been chamfered if you will on the inside edge of the hub mount because of the tapered edge not letting the wheel sit perfectly flat to the hub.

IIRC you're running Rota's?? If so I bet that's the cause of your issues!!
 
Rob Gaskin

Rob Gaskin

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I can understand the wheel/hub clearance issue but if Ian is running with spacers then it may be the spacers that need work to give hub clearance. I am speaking from experience here too.

So the issues I have had are my long studs (pushed into enlarged holes) needed aligning (slight tweak with a tube slid over the stud) to get them at right angles to the hub-face to ensure that the wheel was central. With spacers this is not always noticeable until driving!

Spacers fouling the hub (not by much but enough!)
 
Ian

Ian

Club Member
Spacers clear everything, but they have been removed for now, I'm sure this has helped, did over 200 miles yesterday and the vibration is definitely less but still there slightly.

Thanks for other suggestions guys, this will all be checked when I get home.


Rear wheels cannot be hub centric due to the design of the hub, this has always worried me, but it seems Z's are just like this? Not having any problems with the rears though, but its seems a bad design.


Brakes do need turned, you can hear them rubbing unevenly in neutral at speeds under 20mph, not noticeable when braking so can't be that bad but still something that wants sorting, typical runout problems with the wilwood discs.


Real pain this issue, just want to be able to relax and enjoy the car properly.
 
morbias

morbias

Well-Known Forum User
If you've painted your hub faces then make sure the paint is completely flat with no bits of crud in it. Also, have you checked your wheel bearings? If the brakes have runout too then there could be a problem with the bearings.
 
johnymd

johnymd

Club Member
Is the vibration just though the steering wheel or does the interior mirror vibrate as well? I have had a lot of problems with vibration and it was all down to the prop.
 
Ian

Ian

Club Member
morbias said:
If you've painted your hub faces then make sure the paint is completely flat with no bits of crud in it. Also, have you checked your wheel bearings? If the brakes have runout too then there could be a problem with the bearings.
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Paint is flat and very thin.

Wheel bearings are brand new.

Brakes have runout because they are ****** wildwood discs that came with runout from day one.





johnymd said:
Is the vibration just though the steering wheel or does the interior mirror vibrate as well? I have had a lot of problems with vibration and it was all down to the prop.
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Just the steering wheel, no vibration through the chassis at all.
 
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