7 replies to this topic

[Alberto]

Was feeling an odd imprecision through the steering wheel on long-ish turns (1, 2, 3, 6, 8 at Thunderhill).  At first, I thought it was a bad shock as it felt like it was difficult to control the front weighted wheel.  T2 felt the worse since it is the longest turn and puts a lot of weight on the pax front corner.  Felt a bit of vibration in that turn on the front pax wheel.

 

The shocks look dry so no oil leaking.

 

Jacked the car up to check hubs, ball joints and tie rod ends.  There is a wee bit of play on both driver and pax side as if the tie rod is worn.  The amount of play feels the same on both wheels.  I installed these new when I build the car in 2010 and replaced one in 2011 due to a bad off.  

 

How long do tie rod ends generally last?  Is there a rule of thumb?

 

Anything else that I should check?

 

The brackets attaching the steering rack are tight.

 

Thanks.

[David S.]

I just had a late 80's Volvo that would shake the steering wheel violently when going 60+ and turning the steering wheel just slightly. It felt like a wheel was going to fall off. Shaking the front end didn't reveal anything. Taking a pair of pliers and squeezing the tie rod end into the knuckle showed a good bit of play on one side. Replaced it and the car was fixed. HTH, and good luck.

[ChrisA]

Bad tire? Belt separation can cause some weird feelings.

[davew]

Nothing in general describes what you are feeling. You need to start at the top and work all the way down.

 

Is the quick release coupler secure, seen this come loose more than a few times

Steering shaft under the hood where it couples to the rack

rack bushings, just because the bolts are tight does not mean it is actually holding anything

Inner tie rods, outer tie rods. Any movement means replacement

Suspension bolts

Lower ball joints

Upper ball joints can push out of the control arm. I always tack weld them in place. We found one pushed up 1/4" last week

Bent wheel or out of round/flat spotted tire

 

Don'r just throw parts at the car. Diagnose and know why you are changing something.

 

Dave

[Alberto]

Thanks Dave.  I'll check things out. 

 

I actually did replace the driver side steering rack bushing.  I couldn't figure out how to do the pax side so I left that alone.

[Dennis]

If it's only left hand turns check the upper shock mounts on the left side. Seems counterintuitive but a loose shock on the unweighted side can cause a scary "wheel coming off" vibration. Happened to me (LR shock hat was broken) and to Dean Thomas (LF shock upper mounting bolt had come loose).

Dennis

[SaulSpeedwell]

What DaveW said ...

 

See where the play is - inner joint, outer joint, in the ball and socket, or in the tapered stud-to-knuckle joint?

 

The only one that wouldn't mean parts replacement, in my opinion, would be if you undertorqued the tapered stud or the stud hole was dinged up from people using hillbilly techniques to remove the previous ball stud.

 

Bearings can do this and it will magically go away by the time you cool down ... the good news is this failure will quickly get progressively worse and fail your wiggle inspection in the paddock when cold.

[Ron Alan]

 

 

Bearings can do this and it will magically go away by the time you cool down ... the good news is this failure will quickly get progressively worse and fail your wiggle inspection in the paddock when cold.

Interesting. Seems i had the opposite experience...at least on a rear bearing. When cold I could feel the smallest amount of play...but never a vibration on track and no play when coming off the track(warm/hot of course)!