Thread: Steering Wheel Shaking

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Looking for Help!
I have a 40 Chevy Coupe and My Uncle Has a 48 Mercury Coupe. We seem to be experiencing the same Problem. Depending on the Roads, Our Steering Wheel Shakes, a Brand New Repaved Road Neither One seems to Shake but older roads Do. We both are running Mustang 2 Front Ends, Mine is a Chassis Engineering Brand With Tubular Arms and Lowered Spindles and also has a sway bar installed. His is a Factory Mustang 2 Front Suspension. I have had mine aligned twice, New Balljoints, Tie Rod Ends, Bushings, New Tires but cannot seem to find Shake, He also also did some of the same repalcements he even changed racks and wheels and tires. We cannot seem to find the solution to our problem. Please Help, Give me any Ideas! They are not fun to drive right now!

Originally Posted by 40chevy

Looking for Help!
I have a 40 Chevy Coupe and My Uncle Has a 48 Mercury Coupe. We seem to be experiencing the same Problem. Depending on the Roads, Our Steering Wheel Shakes, a Brand New Repaved Road Neither One seems to Shake but older roads Do. We both are running Mustang 2 Front Ends, Mine is a Chassis Engineering Brand With Tubular Arms and Lowered Spindles and also has a sway bar installed. His is a Factory Mustang 2 Front Suspension. I have had mine aligned twice, New Balljoints, Tie Rod Ends, Bushings, New Tires but cannot seem to find Shake, He also also did some of the same repalcements he even changed racks and wheels and tires. We cannot seem to find the solution to our problem. Please Help, Give me any Ideas! They are not fun to drive right now!

sound like to me you have something worn or loose. how about your steering joints? broken belts in the tires will do that. maybe the motor is touching the chassis some where and you can feel the motor through the steering. like a solid motor mount deal. if its something worn you should be able to see it. check the shocks also.

Does this shaking occur all the time, or intermittantly ??

I can recall I car that I took out for a drivr you would cruise along and all of a sudden the steering wheel would shimy, you would bring the car to a stop, start off again go along for a short distance and the shimy would start again.

On getting the car steering box stripped down, it was found that the rubbing blocks were put on back to front, and the clearances were all up the hoooey.

So it just goes to show anything is possible

If it's a low frequency shake, it's tires or wheels out of balance or out of round. If it doesn't happen all the time, it's probably alignment. Try more caster. Sometimes wheels with more outward offset will hold a straighter line.

We have both tried new tires no change, I have had alignment done twice at my work We used Mustang 2 Settings. We both have Rack and Pinion Manual Steering Racks, my Uncle has just changed his to a manual, Had same problem before. It doesnt Shake all the time on Newly Paved roads it doesn't shake very much some times not at all. My uncle Replace his Shocks with new ones and didn't make a change. ONe other Thing Neither of Us have vibration reducers in our steering Shafts Will they make a difference. My dads 39 has a mustang 2 front end and doesn't have a vibration reducer but he gets no shake. Any more ideas!

R pope beat me to it. add more castor. with the castor angle ( forward or rearward tilt of the suspension components ) if it's too far negative ( or less positive ) then every bump in the road you will feel, because the vehicle weight does nothing to center the steering wheel, with more positive castor, the wheels turn out up and down wise more, but the weight of the vehicle holds the steering str8, also because of this, castor provides automatic return to center ( this is why go carts, lawn mower ect.. will not, but 4 wheelers and such with adjustable castor will ).

Have you rotated your WHEELS maybe a bent rim???

Any More Ideas, That Didn't Seem to Change the Driving Habits it is giving me!
That is the Set up we had before with more positive caster and it drove worse? We reset It to correct angles according to alignment Specs and drove a little better!

One thing that struck me was when you said your Dads handles well, and the other two cars don't. I think I would take a very close look at his installation and then yours to determine what is different between them. Why does his work well and yours do not?

I would be under all the cars with a tape measure, and would also find out how his is set up and aligned. Something is right with his and wrong with yours, and you just have to find out what that thing is.

It is going to boil down to installation, components used, alignment of components, or some faulty component.

Don

Originally Posted by 40chevy

. Depending on the Roads, Our Steering Wheel Shakes, a Brand New Repaved Road Neither One seems to Shake but older roads Do.

Perhaps its just the roads afterall, and you need a steering damper, or, if you have one, it is worn out an needs replacing..

Just a thought.

Sounds like bump steer to me. That's usually a sign that the a-arm geometry is out of wack. I don't know enough to explain out of wack in words though.

Originally Posted by 40chevy

We have both tried new tires no change, I have had alignment done twice at my work We used Mustang 2 Settings. We both have Rack and Pinion Manual Steering Racks, my Uncle has just changed his to a manual, Had same problem before. It doesnt Shake all the time on Newly Paved roads it doesn't shake very much some times not at all. My uncle Replace his Shocks with new ones and didn't make a change. ONe other Thing Neither of Us have vibration reducers in our steering Shafts Will they make a difference. My dads 39 has a mustang 2 front end and doesn't have a vibration reducer but he gets no shake. Any more ideas!

I would think if you both used some type of vibration reducers or rag joints i conection with your steering joints you would solve the problems. HRP

Call Chassis Engineering and see if they can help you pinpoint the problem. They have probably run into this before.