Steering wobble?

[Adrian Southgate]

I have had the wheels balanced on the Sierra but I am still getting quite a wobble between 35 an 40 mph.

TCA ball joints seem fine, TRE's seem fine, bushes seem ok. Its not affected by braking as I have tried applying the brakes while holding the speed constant with the throttle so I'm ruling out disc balance and run out issues.

The only other thing I can think of is the play in the actual steering rack internals which I was advised about at the MOT.

Can I have your thoughts please gents?

[Adrian Southgate]

maybe one of the drums?

[3a038xvsl2h4u]

out of balance you mean?

[Dave Adams]

drums can have balance weights on them so could be the problem....

[Adrian Southgate]

I think its a possibility although they should be balanced at the factory so I am just guessing.

The Legerra has vertical wobble on both sides if you run it up on axle stands. Freaky... :-)

I'll take mine to work tomorrow and see how its improved, although it was a none to gentle road test I gave it earlier.

[Big Vern]

I would have doubted the drums as they are a combination of a cast steel ring with a steel place centre. The halfshaft flanges could be bent of course. That would make the wheels wobble.

[Adrian Southgate]

Nuts will go all the way to the hub face if put on with no wheels. Steel rims not alloys and correct taper on seat for steels. Thats not stupid... thats one of the things I checked when fitting those monster wheels.

[1xf87h8w80hlh]

Adrian i have a magnetic stand and dilegage for checking run out if you or any of the lads are out my way you can borrow them. you do know you could just drive faster prob solved LOL

[Adrian Southgate]

So, not had to update this one for a while.  

I've been driving the beast for three months now and generally happy with how it goes etc, fuel consumption is high still and it really doesn't like crossing the 3k rpm mark in 5th but I can cope with that. Anyway, for a few days now it has made a nasty bang every time I go up a kerb, even small ones at slow speed produce the same result, one sharp knock from the left side.

Having had previous experience of ball joints failing at speed I decided to invest in two new lower suspension arms which arrived on friday so yesterday seemed like a good day to get them fitted. I took all the nuts off the ARB and bottom ball joints then went to get the inner bush bolt out. To my surprise it was only a 13mm, bit smaller then the normal 14. Having found a spare bolt in the garage from the Phaeton I did a little comparing.....

 

As you can see the bolt on the right is indeed slightly smaller than the one on the left which is the correct bolt. I have worked out that this difference would have given me approx 2mm of travel on each of the lower bushes, coupled with a couple of worn ball joints this may have been the source of the movement which felt like 'wobble'.
New arms and bolts fitted I put it all back together to find the steering was so far out of true it was undriveable. over an inch of toe out on the leading edge of the wheel.
I have also changed from a 22mm ARB to a 20mm one as it was lifting a front wheel over mini roundabouts, might be able to keep both front wheels on the floor now.
I feel much safer for having changed all those bits, something I should have done during the rebuild but it got left due to 'other issues' stealing all my time. Something else I learned, never ever take another blokes engineering skills at face value, the whole front end might have looked 'right' but looks can be deceiving.

Track rod ends today and the indicators which appear to have developed a fault which blows fuses  :-(

[28ullkq4hau58]

wont be the first time thats been done and i doubt it,ll bet the last ,, a common problen used to be the inner bolt being/coming loose and wearing the holes into slots in the cross member , i,v welded rienforcing washers on them in the past ..