steering wheel wobble?

**blackbuttdisco** · 12th December 2010, 08:22 AM

check the bolts that fasten the ball to the axle housing. Mine were loose.

**lawzy67** · 12th December 2010, 03:04 PM

yer wobble isnt the wright word more like the streering sharft vibrates like hell and the whole car shakes JDNSW got under it at lunch time today all the rubber seals are fine no tears and not crushed right hand Swivel Pin Housing is weeping a bit but will spend xmas hoildays working it out

1993discoqld · 30th December 2010, 03:14 PM

My 93 3.5 v8 disco was doing the same, steering wheel wobble @ 90k's. After changing all the suspension bushes as well as the A-frame ball joint and the steering damper and had the old girl a wheel alignment, the wobble is gone. Now I can drive at any speed and not get a wobble or vibration.

**PhilipA** · 30th December 2010, 03:55 PM

not crushed right hand Swivel Pin Housing is weeping a bit

A clue.
This clue may lead to the RH swivel bearings being loose and the cause of the problem.
Regards Philip A

**nicho** · 30th December 2010, 11:01 PM

mine did the same and after some searching found the wheels needed balancing and the wheel bearings required readjusting...

drewin · 5th January 2011, 04:08 PM

ahh the good ol' death wobble.. i'm having the same problem with my 93 v8i... starts at about 80km/h but only when you hit a bump or go off camber... to get rid of it i have to back off to about 80 and hit it again.... but happens again next bump i hit. its really annoying and seems to be a common problem with these disco's. i have replaced steering damper, tie rod ends and removed some shims out of the swivel pins to tighten them up a bit, still have the problem.. possible dead shock as it's leaning to one side. have also purchased new front end bushes for everything, just havent installed them yet, will keep advised if it fixes mine...

**BigJon** · 5th January 2011, 04:42 PM

Originally Posted by drewin

possible dead shock as it's leaning to one side.

Shock absorbers don't support vehicle weight.

drewin · 23rd January 2011, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by BigJon

Shock absorbers don't support vehicle weight.

true stuff... would a busted suspension bush of some sort cause this sagging? or maybe even screwed springs?

**blitz** · 24th January 2011, 11:58 AM

you haven't said if it is lifted or not, could be crap caster angle setting it off

**JDNSW** · 24th January 2011, 12:57 PM

As I have commented in other similar threads - it is rarely a single fault that causes this sort of problem. You almost always have multiple issues, and these add up to give a problem - fix one of them, and it may fix the problem. Fix a second or third one, and the problem goes away, "so that must have been the problem". But there may well be other issues as well, so the problem comes back, and the original "fix" no longer works!

For this sort of bump induced vibration to occur, you need to have several factors present:-

Geometry
The castor angle is a compromise, as is the king pin inclination and toe-in (out), but the standard setup works. Change it by a lift, bent tie rod, loose tie rod ends, worn bushes (particularly the ones on the hickey sticks) and the setup may become very likely to oscillate.

Free play

As designed, there is no free play anywhere in the suspension, although there is elasticity in the bushes. Introduce some free play, and oscillation is likely to happen within the limits of the free play whether it is wheel bearings, swivels, tie rod ends, panhard bushes, etc. (Bushes may contribute to this by being loose or just gone soft)

Damping.

If vibration starts, it is damped primarily by the friction on the swivel bushes, secondarily by the steering damper, although this is not intended to do this, and is hampered because it is separated from the site of the oscillation by tierod ends and its own bushes as well as the panhard rod bushes. Because the swivels offer the primary damping, this it is rare to be able to fix the problem without getting them right first.

Inception

While the oscillation will be started usually by hitting a bump, this effect is increased by bigger than standard tyres, bigger offset, out of balance wheels.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors - half a dozen could be contributing to the problem, and fixing any one might fix it - until the other ones you did nothing with get a bit worse!

John

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