Wheel Hop help!!!

I have driven my car all year and while driving to a car show Saturday the right front wheel was starting to bounce or hop real bad. I hit a small bump in the road running about 60mph and thought the front axle was going to fly off....I let off the gas and it stopped. Then everytime I would get up to 55 or 60mph it would start hopping again on the right side which eventually before I would let off it would go to the left side. It just started this all at once.
It has new Bias Ply coker tires...when I got hope I jacked it up and the bearing nut was tight,there is no play when I move the wheel back and forth. Could the front axle (straight axle) have suffered some kind of problem? I have looked and measured thinking something has come lose but cannot find anything that jumps out at me...has this ever happened to anyone? Sure is no fun to drive

 

out of balance?

 

Shock died? Check tire balance,weight may have fell off.

 

I checked all that.....weights are all still in place.

 

Tow in ! Needs to be wider at the front !

 

Well its a ratrod what do you expect?
Sorry couldn't resist.

Its been a few years back when one of the fellas was having a similar problem with a '27 coupe. One of all of us looked at one of everything. Finally his brother noticed he had a broken leaf in the front spring.

Have you given the spring a look see?

 

This has been covered many times ! Do a search ! I had the same problem on both my cars ! Wished I knew the thread to send you too !

 

It's usually more of a low speed problem, but try punching "death wobble" into the search box - it's worth a shot.

 

Had a similar problem with a straight axle car .I first replaced front wheel bearings ,that helped thenat the advice of a brake shop I checked and found a warped rotor.I had it turned and completely lost the wobble. Might be something to check out

 

Looks like I will start with each one of the replies and go from there. Thanks for the info from all....I have all winter now to fool with it.

 

Jack it up, look for an out of round tire. The bump could have caused ply separation. I have had it happen on brand new tires. It will seem like an out of balance condition.

 

Jack the car up until the wheel is off the gound, spin it by hand and carefully watch from the side to see if the tire has a high spot. I had exactly the same problem and it was cured by shaving the front tires. Good shocks are a must also.

 

heres a few hundred post on this subject
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=385556&highlight=death+wobble

 

Thanks for the post onlychevrolets.......

 

Before you do anything, stick another set of tires on. A friends '36 did the same thing with new tires and it turned out to be the tires were out of round. More common than you'd think.

 

Mine was too much run out new tires and wheels fixed it.

 

If the car has sat for a long time, the bias plys sometimes do not want to flex. Drive the tires until they have a chance to warm.

 

My "T" would do that if the tire pressures were off or even low. Run the pressure up nearer (or at) the max recommended, and see how that works. I am assuming that you do not have shock absorbers, as neither did I.

Cosmo