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Got a severe shimmy at 45 mph. Smooth before and after but at 45 mph the steering wheel shakes violently. When I look out the driver side when this is happening the tire is wobbling quite a bit but runs true both before and after 45 mph. Replaced the ball joints. Tie rod ends are fine. Steering box has a little slop but not bad. Tires are spin balanced. I have a new steering box and steering dampner to install but haven’t gotton around to it. The steering shaft to box connection is modified from a stock VW in that they are bolted directly together with no rubber or urethane coupler used.
My car has knock off spoke rims. Spoke to an alignment shop that specializes in VW front ends and the guy told me it’s better to balance the tires on the car which I am having done this Friday. He also said it could be a bad tire. They are new but could be out of round. This is common when a shimmy occurs at a particular speed but not at any other time.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this experience and what you did to correct it.
IMHO it sounds like a balance problem. The exact placement of the weights can have considerable effect . Some times the weights are all placed on the inside of the wheel for appearance when they should be devided inside and outside to achieve proper balance side to side as well as simply compensating for a light or heavy area of the tire.
Are the rims true?
I suspect if the rims need spokes tightened/loosened/adjusted, you would feel a shimmy at any speed. But there could be something about the frequencies at 45 that are upsetting the car.
PMOSSBERG40798.5936226852
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
There is some kind of harmonic, 40 mph, on Bridget. Very minor steering wheel wobble and was the same before and after new tie rods, beam, springs, tires, balance, shox, etc.
Sounds like yours is way worse and hope they run it down easy.
Real knock-off wires? Man that’s phat.
I’ll let you know what the outcome is as soon as I know something. Just thought I’d see if anyone had run into the same problem.
For a second there I thought schu wrote sometimes a little WOBBY looks good….
OK, back to the wobble thread.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
You do have a steering damper installed, don’t you? Is there a flat spot when you change direction? There should be no change in resistance.
The only time I’ve had a problem like that it turned out to be the steering damper. A fairly easy fix.
1981 Lafer TI
1600 cc Type 1 engineThere is one on the car but not sure of the condition. I have a new one to install but haven’t gotten to it yet. I’m having the wheels balanced on the car Friday which need to be done anyway. The guy feels sure it’s an our of round tire by the symptoms. We’ll see. I’ll try to swap out the dampner this weekend as well. Can’t hurt especially since I already have it. If it’s not the tires, rims or dampner the only thing left is the box itself as everything else down there is new. I have a new box as well but hate to tackle that if I don’t need to. Good Winter project.
Took the car in Friday to get the wheels balanced while on the car. Upon inspection getting the wheel up to speed while off the ground revealed wheel travel up and down indicating something was out of round. We pulled the wheel off and noticed the knock off hub mounted to the brake drum was off center. Unusual cause the holes are over size but the lug studs are tapered to compensate for this and thus center the hub. Anyway just for grins we took the hub loose and rotated it one hole and remounted it and the rim. Problem fixed. The wheel ran true and I no longer have any wheel shimmy at any speed. Guess I got lucky on that one. Spent the rest of the weekend cruisin around town and to a no award car show Saturday. Put about 200 miles on the car at various speeds and he performed flawlessly.
Love it when the solution is essentially free!
Might want to put a dab of paint on one lug stud and one hole so you don’t repeat the problem next time the wheels come off the car.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Tom– please post pics of those swingin’ knock-off spokers. Do so wish I could get me some . . . .
That’s a great idea Paul on the paint mark. I’ll definately do it next time I take the rim off. In fact I’ll do all 4 like that in case I ever remove the knock off hub from the brake drum on any of the others.
Ed this is the best pic I have of the knock off Spoke rim. This was the day I brought Winston home from Florida. I’ll try to take a more close up pic for you. They have a lot of surface rust from sitting over the years with the prior owners. I am looking into having them re chromed. The couple of places I’ve talke to want me to remove the spokes and reinstall them after the rims are re chromed. I’m not to sure I want to tackle that. The spokes are stainless.
Tom,
Read the below file on truing wire wheel before you even think about taking those beauties apart.
You might want to settle for a mini powerball and chrome polishing compound.
http://www.fbccsc.org/tech/spokewheels.pdf
The SOL (Scions of Lucas) web site lists this article about respoking wire wheels.
Respoking Wire Wheels, Special Interest Autos #101 P.30. This issue is available from: SIA Back issues, Box 196, Bennington, Vermont 05201 for $5.00
Yep, I’m not to keen on pulling the spokes. I’ll have to do the best I can with the polish bit till I can afford to replace them all together. The rims look good now from a distance but when you get up close the rusted area become very apparent and detract from the overall condition of the car. I have one of those mini balls and power cones. Probably gonna be a good winter time project.
Tom, Those wheels really set off the car. I know that wire wheels were not original on the TDs but in my opinion,nothing else looks quite as good. I know they require a lot of work to keep them from rusting but they add an Old English look that I identify with the period that these cars represent.
I checked the Moss Motors site and new ones are about $400 to $ 500 each.Too expensive for me but I bet rechroming is not going to be that much cheaper and getting them rethreaded and true will not be easy .
They probably look OK to everyone except you, maybe you could sell them to recoup some of the price of new ones.
That is a GOOD LOOKNG TD!!!
Thanks Larry. I agree completely. Nothing against TD’s with stock VW slotted rims but I really like the wires on this model car and a true knock off is just icing on the cake in my opinion. They seem to belong there and don’t look at all like an aftermarket add on. I will do my best to keep them from getting any worse than they are and when the time comes for replacement I’ll put them up for sale here first. I just wish the previous owner would have taken as good a care of the rims as he did the rest of the car. It’s really in pristine shape for it’s age. I was very luck to have found it. I’ve been told Harley Davidson sells cloth strips in a container that are impregnated with some type of cleaner made for spoke rims. I’ll have to drop by there and see what they have. Thanks again for the compliments and the advice. Sure wish I was closer to you guys to do some cruisin together. I’m sort of a one horse show down here but on the plus side I sure get alot of thumbs up from people young and old when Winston’s out on the road.
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