Re: Intermittant vibration at high speeds

["Bernard Littau" <bernardl@acumenassociates.com>]

>>  The shaking is very violent, almost bad enough to shake
>> the wheel out of your hand. The vibration, from what I can tell,  appears
to
>> be coming from the right front wheel. Tapping the brakes stops the
>> vibration, and if I immediately reaccelerate back up to about 80 mph
>
>Yikes!  sounds dangerous - experimenting with violent shakes at 80 mph.
>If tapping the brakes makes it stop I'd worry 1. about the brakes not
>being tight somehow, then 2. what other thing it might be that is
>obviously out of whack.  Wheel bearing?
>


Check everything.  Do not assume you know even which wheel the problem comes
from.

Case in point:

My wife's Bronco II developed a rattle/shaking while driving home one Friday
evening.  She mentioned it Friday night, but I kind of forgot about it until
Saturday morning on our way out the door to sailboat race.  This added an
element of time pressure.  I drove the car about 1/2 a mile, and concluded
the rattle was coming from the right front.  When I applied the brakes, the
rattle went away.  This made me think it was a bearing -- braking tends to
support bearings from shifting side-to-side.

We turned around, and I did a quick tear down of the right front wheel (it's
a 4x4).  I had replaced the rotors about six months before, and also had put
in new bearings.  The bearing was a bit loose.  Problem found.  I was
mulling over how I had never had a bearing I installed fail prematurely --
first time for everything.  I retightened the bearing, and checked the
play - none.  Good.  I reassembled the right front wheel, and we took off.

The rattle seemed better for a while, then it came back.  Shit.  We elected
to continue with the rattle, and made it to our race (45 mile round trip).
On the way home, with the rattle, we stopped for a set of bearings and oil
seal at an auto parts store, and when I got home I once again tore into the
right front wheel.  There was no play and no evidence of anything wrong with
right front.  I had the rotor out and was about to pound out the bearings
when I decided to check the bearing play on the left front.

The left front wheel was missing one lug nut, and all of the others were
loose.  Sheesh!  The problem was loose lug nuts on the other wheel.  OK, so
I am an idiot.

Lesson was don't assume you know what side a problem is on, and check all
the wheels, bearings and ball joints before you jump to a conclusion.

If anyone needs a set of bearings and an oil seal for a Bronco II front
wheel, drop me a line :-)

Best,

Bernard Littau
Woodinville, WA
''88 5kcstq