Projects Question about axle wiggle

^^^^. What he said. Flex is with beam axles not tube. Is spring tight in cross member?

 

I asked the same question back on page 4. He never responded so I guess that means he doesn't know.

 

He seems to only answer questions that he thinks are applicable.

 

That first pic he posted shows the issue clear as day, the drag link and bones are on different angles.

That with a kingpin with slack in it will make a front end get all kinds of weird.

 

I had the same type of issue last year. I installed a steering damper to stave the problem temporarily but I knew the problem stemmed from a steering box that was shot. Redid the entire system and $1200 later I feel safe.

 

I’ve briefly read a few comments. There is jam nuts on the Heims. A lot of the nit picking of my car is on pictures when it was just being mocked up.

I agree with the comment that I need to ride in other straight axle cars.

I have a little play in my pass never side kingpin. It’s going to have to stay that way for a bit I guess.cant tell if it’s the lower bearing or the bushings but I had the bushing professionally done a little while back.

I wanted to ask if anyone has used a full size steering damper? With my new caster angle at 60-70mph my steering is so touchy. It like to put some more resistance to it. I’ve bout a full size stabilizer to replace my SoCal/vw one.

My car at speed is actually too easy to turn in my opinion.

 

Also I checked and have 1/8 toe in the front,with 6 degrees caster so that checks out good

 

If you've got king pin slop there's absolutely no sense whatsoever to do anything before that slop is eliminated.

Perfect up and down motion along the king pin will be lack of shims or the bearing, not as problematic and easier and faster to correct.

Back and forth slop across the pin will be bushings. A little bit off goes along way at 60 mph and since I've figure this out I only get the bushings line honed not reamed.

 

Ditto on this with the caveat that just because you had kingoin bushings " professionally installed" doesn't mean the job was done right. I've got about 50 years in general machine work and I know that reaming a bushing set in anything is a job that can go Oh So Wrong in a flash. Agree totally that a line honing job is much more precise, just takes a shop that is willing to spend the bucks to get the right equipment.
And also agree that until that's fixed, you might as well park the car.

 

Put bias plies on it and you'll experience so much other shit you probably won't even notice the shake any more!

Lots of good info in this thread!

 

As mentioned previously I did have bias on it

 

They was ‘honed’ and done by an engine shop. A very reputable one here

 

Was thinking along the lines of increase, of caster. +3* puts you at ~ 9.

Then there is offset, diff. between king pin inclination contact point, and tread ctrline.

 

Oh. I saw "4 different sets of wheels and tires" I must have missed where you said bias ply specifically (and I was looking.) Apologies if I missed it!

 

"honed" or "line honed"?????? And BTW, if the tires are bias ply, that's one more reason you need to ride in and if possible drive another vehicle of similar weight with a straight axle and bias ply tires for comparison. Because it's a whole other world than what you're accustomed to with IFS and radials.

 

I never said they was bias. I said it HAD bias before.

 

So hey 31vicky-about the king pins. I noticed it’s the driver side that has a slight bit of play, I tightened the king pin locks and it went away,but the lock is not flush with the front of the axle,it pulled it in a bit.

Shouldn’t be like that right?

 

The tapered lock pin can pull in as far as it needs to. As long as it makes the kingpin tight and hasn't pulled through the hole all the way, shouldn't make any difference that it's not flush on the front side.

 

So the lock pin is tapered, it jambs up in the hole eventually. It's also serated so it can do the job. It has a very simple job, to force the king pin up against the bore of the axle. The pins can fit sorta loose in the axle bore and that lock pin takes care of the slop.
The pin needs to /must fit much tighter in the spindle bushings.

To answer your question, it greatly depends on how far the lock pin went in and under how much pressure. That is going to be a judgement call there. It's possible the axle's holes are too big to let the lock pin do it's job. If so then that's a problem.

 

The answer is quite simple on the wobble. Learned that in 1962. Auto part store sold me a Volkswagen Beetle steering dampner...bingo...problem solved. A lot of trucks with straight axles have a steering dampner...why....no one yet has figured this out. All of my rods have dropped axles...some need it and some don't. The very same design on front end can have it and/or not. It's a phenomenon that defies logic. My '75 Cadillac Eldorado also had on...no straight axle there. ?? Just buy a SolCal dampner ( a dead copy of a 60's VW unit ) and your problem is solved.