Narrowing down wobble issues

[RJS]

Hello,

Many have seen my past posts about trying to fix the wobble on my wedge.

It is now acceptable most of the time. I have noticed that when I turn right (shifting weight to the left of the car) I can get a moderate / severe wobble. When I turn left (shifting weight to the right), there is never any wobble (it even stops a wobble if it had a wobble before the turn). This tells my small mind that there is an issue with the left side suspension. I have rotated the tires, and that made no difference. I packed the bearings, and they looked ok to me.

I am thinking it is one, or a combination of these items: ball joints, tie rods, or bushings (please add to this list if you have any ideas). I believe all of the listed items are original to the car.

Is there a way to determine which of these items could be the culprit? I do not have much experience with suspension, so you will not insult me if you point out obvious items.

Thanks,
Rob

[Workshop Help]

This evening, jack up the front end about an inch. Grasp each tire at the 12 & 6 o'clock positions and rock it back and forth. If there is any play, the wheel bearings are loose.

Remove the center cap, the cotter pin and castellated nut. Tighten the wheel bearing nut. Re-install the pieces in the reverse order.

Again grasp the tire and rock it back & forth. There should be only a trace of movement.

It is not unusual for freshly packed wheel bearings to compress out the grease leaving a bearing loose in it's race.

Mildred Hargis

[FI Spyder]

I came across a different situation. I had taken out the LH strut to try to isolate a tinging clanking sound. On re-installation I failed to torque down the inside control arm nut. On curves that put a certain load on it I would get a slight wobble. I put it up on ramps and checked all nuts I discovered the loose nyloc nut. I torqued to spec and wobble all gone, back to silky smooth. Loose or worn bushing on inside end of control arm can now be listed as a cause.

Oh, and the tinging clanking sound? That was the fan hitting the off center fan shroud (off center because of new recored rad had it offset). It would only happen on certain bumps and when turning (intermittent). Bent shroud up to give more clearance (forming top rad strip). It looked like it had plenty of cllearance but not under dynamic operation.



- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Hasbeen]

Just to make it harder Rob, you probably have that exactly wrong. If the wobble stops when turning left, it probably means there could be slack in some component of the right suspension. The extra turning load on that side MAY force the worn component to one side, eliminating the slop, thus reducing the wobble, you feel.

Of course I have been known to be wrong before, so don't take that as gospel either.

However before you jack the car up to do Mildred's test, get yourself down on the ground, where you can see the tie rod ends, probably one at a time. Have someone wobble the steering wheel, & watch to see if there is any slack in those.

Then check if there is any lost motion between the steering wheels, & the road wheels. If so there are 3 possibilities.

1/ Mildred's wheel bearing slack.

2/ The inner ball joint on the tie rods are worn, allowing slop, {not common] or

3/ The pinion is not in suitably tight contact with the rack, [very common]. The latter is easily adjustable, so adjust, & grease, as required every 6000 miles. The inner balls are not hard to replace, but it is a time consuming job, so don't expect to do it in an afternoon, before a big date.

When you do jack the car to check those bearings, place the jack under the lower control arm, as close to the road wheel as possible. This lifts the car, with the suspension gear loaded, as when driving. In this position you can check the condition of the lower ball joint. Move your hands to top & bottom of the wheel, & again rock the wheel in & out.

If you feel slop the ball joint is worn. To check this find some stout gloves for your glamorous assistant. No car is worth a broken finger nail to her. Have her rock the wheel, while your looking at the ball joint.
If your glamorous assistant has trouble with this task, don't complain , or you may find yourself locked out of your bedroom for a month. Just find a tough biker to help. Oh, & don't forget to look at the inner bushes on the control arms & the anti roll bar/control arm bushes while you've got the thing up in the air.


After all above, your problem will be balance, or wheel alignment. Eliminating the worn bits adds friction, & has a dampening effect on any wobble. Worn bits allow the magnitude of any minor wobble to increase greatly before getting to the steering wheel. Much of our wobble problem is down to after market wheels not set up properly for our hub centric wheel system.

Do remember almost all cars with racks also had a steering damper included in the system, before power steering became so popular. The power does nothing to eliminate the wobble, but dampens it out, so you don't feel it. Even so, in my mind, this is not a good enough reason to fit power steering, particularly anything like the electric system fitted to my Honda S2000, which is a dreadful soul & steering deadening thing.

Hasbeen