OBE Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Hi all .. I have a persistent annoying steering wheel vibration that comes on around 45-50mph.So far the car has hadwheels swapped front to rear, no changebrand new pair of tyres on the front, no changepolyurethane and rubber versions of suspensions bushes tried, no change.New front brakes (discs, pads, calipers)front tracking tried at a variety of angles from slight toe out through to toe in.I'm struggling now to think what the issue is.Has anyone else had a persistent steering wheel vibration that appears to be nothing to do with wheels, tyres, balancing, bushes, brakes, tracking ??any help appreciated please :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StagNL Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 I too had vibrations in the steering but came in at around 65-70mph.Never got rid of it and I too had done what you have done. Bushes, tyres, balancing, brake pads and discs, front to rear wheel swap. Later I read about the original alloy wheels sometimes not being true. I.e. the balancing is done on the centre hole while the wheel is fixed to the car via the bolt holes. The centre hole is not used to centre the wheel on the hub. Only after I bought new aftermarket wheels did the vibrations go away. Julian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard w Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 Me too. With the car jacked up it was possible to see just how un-centred the original alloys were. When I bought some new minilite replicas the vibrations all went away.Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrapman Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Yes, but on a Mk2 2000. My fillings are falling out!Someone else mentioned to me how crap the Stag Alloys can be for centering.Fitting some steels tonight to eliminate the alloys.Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OBE Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Ah .. interesting call on the wheels .. my stag has alloys but i'm not sure if they're a stag replica or a reconditioned original wheel. I will spin them up on the hubs and try and see if they're running out of true when actually mounted to the car.Also the central hole is used (is it not) when the wheels are attached to a wheel balance machine .. maybe the answer is to have the wheels balanced on the car ? I've heard of machines that do this but never had any first hand experience of them.More investigation is required but thanks for the info about wheels, it never occured to me that they might be manufactured wrong from the outset .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junkuser Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 The old wheel balancers that spin the wheel on the car were good for locating imbalance in everything that rotates.Had a new Capri back in 1971 with front end shake. Returned several times and each time was told the wheel balance was OK. (They used an off-car balancer)Found a place with an on-car balancer who dug deeper and discovered the brake rotors were out of balance.Replacements solved the problem.The suggestion that the wheel centres may be the problem is worth investigating but not easy. Really requires setting up on a lathe and measuring/boring. (Did this on the standard Spitfire wheels as tyre fitters insist on balancing on their off car balancers, "centering" the wheel with a cone. Had access to a large lathe a few years back so decided to turn out the centres to save the hassle of re-balancing with my on-car machine. Mounted them on a modified Herald hub in this case so they were nut-centric.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V MAD RULES OK Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 6949 wrote:Ah .. interesting call on the wheels .. my stag has alloys but i'm not sure if they're a stag replica or a reconditioned original wheel. Location of the valve will tell you if they are original GKN alloys or repros. Simples. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrapman Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 junkuser wrote:Had a new Capri back in 1971 with front end shake. Returned several times and each time was told the wheel balance was OK. (They used an off-car balancer)Found a place with an on-car balancer who dug deeper and discovered the brake rotors were out of balance.Replacements solved the problem.That is intersting, I stopped for a chat at my MOT station last night, and got talking about my wheel wobble.He said he used to have problems with out of balance or distorted discs on Capri's many years ago. No other Fords, just Capris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJM Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I had problems on a Cortina that had a rear tyre (!) that was disintegrating, when using an on car balancing machine with strobe you could see the tyre tread lifting and collapsing.Scary as I had been using it for weeks and had a least 3 goes at balancing etc.Sorted by simply changing the tyre and visibly it looked fine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharliesStag Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Wheels would be my choice. I was chastised for changing the iconic wheels from the Stag but the fact is many of them were drilled incorrectly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlastairC Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 My car does that too, Ive been told that Im going to need new tyres soon so will get it sorted at the ame time hopefully. Tyres are old and apparantly are starting to show small cracks in the side walls. Hopefully that will be the problem sorted, but i expect it may something contributing to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piman Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Hello OBE, "will spin them up on the hubs and try and see if they're running out of true when actually mounted to the car."You really need to correct the wheel and not have them balanced to compensate. The wheels must run true.Alec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharliesStag Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Bar slugging (putting in inserts) the wheels and redrilling them how else can the stud holes be drilled correctly and straight to the rim? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piman Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Hello CharliesStag, I thought the problem was with the centre hole of the wheel. I can't believe that Triumph fitted wheels to their cars with the stud holes drilled wrongly?Alec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StagNL Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 One Stag owner told be the rear face of one of his alloys was not true. It meant horrid wheel wobble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharliesStag Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 piman wrote:Hello CharliesStag, I thought the problem was with the centre hole of the wheel. I can't believe that Triumph fitted wheels to their cars with the stud holes drilled wrongly?AlecThey did indeed locate on via the wheel studs. For instance the centre bore on the Stag hubs is smaller on the rear than it is on the front, proof in itself that the wheels locate via the studs. A few peeps on the SOC have got rid of very perplexing vibrations by ditching their wheels with other noting how their wheels appeared to be misdrilled (well, drilled slightly off centre).Some have said that one way to get around the problem is to balance the wheels as if it were Peugeot (i.e it has centreless wheels, thus they are balanced via the wheel studs by most tyre fitters). But considering the success most (including myself) have had by changing the wheels for aftermarket items I reckon that is the way forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73stagman Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Newbie to this forum.... Just fixed a wheel vibration on my Stag. I thought the wheel bearing needed nipping up so checked the wheel by giving it the good old wobble from the top of the wheel.. it rattled like it was hardly fixed to the hub. So removed the wheel, tightened up the bearing , the locking nut only moved 90 degrees which took away any signs of bearing wobble. Put it back togetehr and the wheel still rocked like it wasnt fixed to the hub... I discovered the hlding nut on th etop of the strut (inside the wheel arch and behind the spring :-/ :-/ was half a turn loose. The new struts were installed during my restoration and obviously had settled in to the strut tube. anyway no more wobble and no more front wheel vibration. Now its just the exhaust that makes it shake!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard w Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 Sorry to go off topic, but good to see you on here Neil. Didn't see your goodbye post on the SOC forum until it was too late.Richard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2Triumphs Posted February 16, 2015 Share Posted February 16, 2015 I had a steering wobble but only when braking hard from motorway speed and it was more like a resonance that diminished as you slowed down through the sort of speeds your talking - tried similar to what you did but a subsequent accident dictated 4 new stag alloys and original spec tyres - come to think of it noticed little if any resonance since....tyre toe in is as per bookworth a try? have you tried driving at same speed in a higher or lower gear if so is vibration much less if so it might not be wheels and tyres but more vibration transmitted through bodywork and into steering column - the whole steering column design is naf with loose splines and prone to slop and lateral play (I found rebushing made it if anything worse) which is just the sort of thing that encourages resonance - I also wonder why some have problems and others don't - I suspect the position of steering column adjustment is a factor - have you tried driving with the column fully in or out or up and down? - maybe it wears ins a certain place...30,000 stag miles in last 5 years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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