Urq shakes at speed-solved

[Scott Fisher]

--- Jenny Curtis <jenny at physics.umn.edu> wrote:
> I wonder if bad front ball joints could be the cause
> of the shimmy at
> speed that I have been experiencing in the Princess?
>  I have felt it for
> a while, despite wheels being swapped and
> realligned.

That's one likely solution.  I've just recently traced
the shimmy under braking in my '83 CGT to a bad RF
wheel bearing and hub.  Haven't fixed it yet (driving
other cars at the moment), but the diagnosis -- once I
got around to it -- was pretty easy: put a hand at 8
and a hand at 2 and try to shake the wheel diagonally.
 Mine clunk-wobbles quite noticeably.

The other symptom on my car was that I have to hold
the wheel about 30 degrees CCW to go down the road
straight.  Just for yuks I tried realigning the
steering wheel (well, I'd replaced the old wheel
anyway, so I had all the tools right in front of me)
and found I *STILL* had to hold the wheel cocked to
the left to make the car go straight.  Went to have
the alignment checked at a local Sears and they found
the bad bearing with the car up on the rack.  (I
wobbled the wheel myself; in addition to being so
loose I would have failed a car in tech, the LF wheel
exhibited no such wobble.)

So far I've just looked over the Haynes manual to see
how involved bearing/hub replacement is; I figure
Huw's site is next, but any BTDTs will be gratefully
accepted.  It LOOKS as if the whole corner needs to
come out, so I'm thinking this is the right time to
replace springs, front struts, bearings, and brakes at
the same time.

--Scott Fisher
  Tualatin, Oregon



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