Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? May 15, 2008, 12:00:56 AM Not my car but it's a fox so I'm hopeing someone can confirm my guess :D My buddy just bought an 89 Mustang Gt with 128,000 mile son it. It has a steering wheel shake/shimmy at speeds over 55 mph. The wheel bearings make no noise when driving (at least that I can hear as the thing has Flowmaster 2 chambers ). When I jack up one side of the car I can wiggle either front tire back and forth when holding it a 3 and 9 o'clock about 1/2" or so. Plus when I spin the wheel I hear a swish, swish, swish, swish sould and the front wheels are pretty hot after a drive. All this seems to point to worn wheel bearings. I just want to make sure before we replace them and the vibration doesn't go away :hick: .Oh and the tie-rods seem to be tight. I can't wiggly them so they seem to be good. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #1 – May 15, 2008, 12:26:45 AM It could be a tire that's bad or needs balancing. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #2 – May 15, 2008, 01:22:42 AM balance issues?bent rim?does it shake all the time or only while cruising at certain speeds(like around 40mph and 80mph)i was told that warped rotors can cause steering shake even when your not using the brakes, i never had warped rotors so i cant confirm this. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #3 – May 15, 2008, 01:34:09 AM Quote from: thunderjet302;218938 When I jack up one side of the car I can wiggle either front tire back and forth when holding it a 3 and 9 o'clock about 1/2" or so. Did you guys miss this part? I dont think a tire out of balance would cause that... Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #4 – May 15, 2008, 03:39:59 AM At first I thought, bad tie rods & worn brake pads. If your sure tie rods are tight, my guess would be loose wheel bearings.(very loose) Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #5 – May 15, 2008, 04:42:00 AM Rack is probly shot. Least the outer tie rods. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #6 – May 15, 2008, 06:52:59 AM If the tire will move the same at 12-6 position as it does at 3-9, it is wheel bearings. If tight at 12-6, but loose at 3-9, then tie rods or rack. If the bottom only moves at the 12-6, top doesn't move, it is balljoint. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #7 – May 15, 2008, 11:11:16 AM Quote from: Prototype Services;218972If the tire will move the same at 12-6 position as it does at 3-9, it is wheel bearings. If tight at 12-6, but loose at 3-9, then tie rods or rack. If the bottom only moves at the 12-6, top doesn't move, it is balljoint.I'll check it again doing that. Thanks :D We know it's not the tires. All the weights are still on them and we put 'em on my T-bird and it ran fine on the highway. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #8 – May 15, 2008, 01:16:22 PM sticking calipers is a possibility with the heat. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #9 – May 15, 2008, 06:11:54 PM Ok so as it stands:Wiggle only at 3 and 9 but none at 6 and 12 with one side of the car jacked up and the steering wheel locked.If I grab the tie rod and try to move it it's pretty solid. No movement side to side (ie right to left) or up and down with the car on the ground or up in the air. It will move around (like the throttle on a motorcycle) about 1/4 inch or so.As for the heat issue it's not really excessive. The front wheels on both sides are warm after a drive but really the front wheels on both my T-bird feel about the same after driving the same *drive*. I'm guessing it's normal and we were just looking into it too much. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #10 – May 21, 2008, 09:53:52 PM Quote from: GREYSHADOW;218964Rack is probly shot. Least the outer tie rods.Hey what do ya know you're right :hick: The rack is is worn which is causing the steering wheel to shimmy and vibrate at speeds over 60 mph. If we turn it right or left the shimmy and vibration pretty much goes away. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #11 – May 26, 2008, 11:18:07 AM the inner tie rod end is hard to find as a problem without help.you gotta slide the boot off and move the wheel (jacked up) left / right and you will see the shaft in the rack move. This means it really isnt the inner but the rack itself.I just replaced my rack and noticed the installation of the inners involved a roll pin being hammered in to lock the nut to the rack shaft.Your buddy may have a better breed of racks where there is an allen set screw putting the inner tie rod end into a bind on the rack shaft.If you see an allen set screw, loosen that up and the inner will unscrew off the rack itself. Those type of inners are adjustable. I have a write up on this type in my DIY link.the swish noise you hear when rotating the wheel is the rotor touching the pads barely. Take note of this and keep an eye on it because if your caliper is not fully dis-enguaging, the rotor will warp. The primary cause for warpped rotors is a calper hose breaking down near where the hose transitions from rubber to the metal crimp. The crimp has cut through the rubber near the caliper and some of the hose is blocking fluid from returning to the master. Fluid goes in the caliper in one direction very easy but has a hard time returning. Your hose starts acting like a one way valve. Even more common from my exerience is this happening on the passanger side. For some reason, the distance being further from the master makes some sort of difference. My white coug and I chased the warped passanger rotor issue for years before i had someone tell me about the caliper hose breaking down internally. One sure sign that you have this issue or will soon is when you do a break job and your pass side calper does not compress as easy as your driver side. Basically what this says is your shiznit has cooked itself and you gotta replace the rotor/caliper/caliper hose as a matched set. I dont know why this is other than the length of the line is greater on one side than the other. Ill bet there is some science to this but i dont know what it is. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #12 – May 26, 2008, 11:40:26 AM BY THE WAY!!!!!NAPA carries the high and low presure line in stock. This news is very important becaue once you have the two new lines, all you have to do is cut off your existing lines and pull the rack. The biggest pain on our racks is getting to the line fittings. Knowing this is no longer important makes the job go much smoother because all your faced with is a couple nuts and bolts.to make the job even more simple, simply undo the column linkage (telescope) bolt / nut.undo the clamp type bolt at the rackyou can figure it out from here. Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #13 – May 26, 2008, 11:45:22 PM We got it off and done this weekend. It's 100% now and steers nice :D I'll have him keep an eye on the pads and rotors. It's not long till a brake job anyways so we might just do the whole pads/rotors/calipers/hoses fun.Now we find out that the lines are avaliable. It was a PITA to get those things off without breaking them :hick: Quote Selected
Steering wheel shimmy/shake bad wheel bearings? Reply #14 – June 04, 2008, 09:00:55 PM Ok so the vibration in the wheel is back above 70 mph. I think that both front calipers are sticking (the passenger side more so) as the wheels are really, really HOT after a drive. They get so hot that if you touch them you have to pull away right away or get burnt (the tires are hot as well). Wheel bearings are good and have no play. Ball joints are good. It HAS to be the calipers sticking correct? Both front wheels are kinda hard to spin freely (resistance, they move but not all that well and make a swish, swish sound) and the front wheels on my 95 turn easier (we had it around so we jacked it up to compair). Any thoughts? Quote Selected
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