went over the front end to day, all looked good, swaped out the front tires, with a set of new ones, on loan from a friend, tried it out as soon as it hit the street i could tell a difference, i could not get it to wobble no matter how rough the road was, or the bad spots i hit, worked great,then i decided to try my old tires on his car to see what would happen, no sooner than i hit the street, at the first rough patch...yep you guessed it wobble, so i traded bak and looking to get a new set soon....now my ? is what makes those tires it do that...
I chased my death wobble forever on my old sedan,and never got it totally fixed.Glad you found it,got her made now!!
I just had the same thing happen to me. I had gone through EVERYTHING on the front end, new kingpins, tie rod ends, spring bushings, wheel bearings, shocks, added a later style recirculating ball style steering box (there was a hair of play I couldn't remove from the original), steering damper, changed caster and toe settings, and rebalanced the front tires three times and the rears twice. Finally had another tire issue and replaced the tires with some spares that a friend gave me and damn if the truck ain't smooth as silk now. Jaysin
Let me guess... They're bias ply's right? I love the look but that kinda stuff drives me crazy. So... you can call me "Radial Ron" for now.
if i would have listen to the older wiser guys i know .this would have been fixed along time ago....i thought i new it all
"Folks that think they know it all are such a pain in the ass to those of us who really do!" My dad always told me that. After slapping me in the head.
Flathead, are the person that had the poll about what might be your problem ? Glad to hear it's behind you now.
Given that you have isolated the problem to either rims or tyres you should jack up your front end with the suspect wheels fitted and spin them up and check lateral runout on the rim bead and peripheral runout of the rim/tyre to ensure the tyre is running concentric. Just mount a makeshift pointer on a jack stand or similar to ascertain the level of runnout that you have. The other issue is the balance however that wont fix an out of true rim/tyre combo.
It may sound a little odd, but I had the same problem until I balanced my tires/wheels on the car. A few old shops still have machines to do this; turned out my hubs (54' belair) were off balance. Usually you find the drum adding to the problem... Kind of a pain, but now there is a paint mark on my hub/drum/and wheel to index them... Because of the stiffness of the bias side wall and a light hotrod now using the spindles; my problem was more noticable than when the spindle was mounted on the belair!
Just remember the old farts probably learned the hard way just like you...it was just years earlier. I did. Been there, done that... I believe that most death wobbles are balance or tire problems.
^^^ yeah was thinkin the same thing^^^^ prolly need to be made true. dont just ditch'em, try to have'em shaved. ooops, didnt notice Tommy post, im referring to I Smell Smoke.
Wheel offset can do that too. Draw an imaginary line through the center of the tire. Draw another imaginary line through the king pins. The lines should meet at ground level. If not, try different wheels. Tires are soft, yet hard, flexible, and they change while being used. They have a tough job and are often overlooked.
I cured this problem on one of my cars by having the tires balanced on the car. Not may shops still have the equipment to do it anymore and the guy that usually runs the machine is the senior tech.
Whatever you do, do not just go out and buy new tires - have your wheels checked for lateral and vertical runout - then either have them trued by a professional wheels shop or junk them and get new wheels - it may not be the tires that are the problem. Also check that the holes for the wheel studs are not wallowed out. There are two types of wheel - hub centric - where the hub centers the wheel on the hub/axle and lug centric, where the center hole is larger and the holes for the wheel studs locate and center the wheel.
You posted this before I could - this is really, really a good idea since buying new tires may NOT fix the problem!!
as another survivor of the wobble wars, I also got it good to the point of satisfactory driving. But it wasn't perfect. Last summer I took the drums and hubs off and balanced them on a spinner tire machine. only 1/4 oz on one and 1/2 on the other. This once again made an improvement. Still not perfect, but very comfortable. Another important item is to not balance a bias tire when it has a flat spot in it. IF you are gonna balance them, run the car and get the tire warmed up. then jack it up and let the tires cool with no weight on them. Now you got a tire that is as round as it can be.
Glad yer bak, wobbel guy. I had the same problem with my 34, used bias plys, never buy used bias plys........ever!
Anyone tried the "dynamic" balance stuff that some of us 4x4 folks use? Everything from plastic beads to anti-freeze to sand. I cannot remember the name of the stuff I use but others like "Dyna balls" are all in the same ballpark. Worked great for my 33x 12.50 mud tires that the machine could not get to balance. Just curious if it would work in this situation?
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