Thread: Steering shake

Getting a nasty shake in the steering, at its worst at around 80, non existent at 110. Wheels just been balanced, and did swap wheels of my other car with no joy.
Tie rods and bushes all checked, steering box adjusted. Did have a dud uni in front shaft, replaced and still the same.
Guess I’m down to swivel preload?
Did notice that slip joint in rear shaft has some wear, would this cause it?
Any other suggestions?

Cheers
Rick

my D1 developed a steering shake not long after I got 'im.

First things I did was to check shocker bushes and panhard rod bushes and bolts.
As I understand, not many folks change the bolts with the panhard bushes.
Shock bushes had play, changed to polys, same for panhard bushes .. seemed ok, changed anyhow. Still had a slight wobble.
Changed panhard bolts a bit better again, main issue now was only on left hand bends, hit bump with left front, would cause an annoying wobble.
Noted that steering damper was an Armstrong(thinking it may be original), removed, had a few loose spots in it's travel, changed(with new rubber bushes) made no difference.

So thoughts veered towards swivels too, pins/bearings and preload.
Lowered tyre pressures from my normal 36 down to 28 and generated death wobbles at about 80k/h at random moments .. ie. no bumps needed, nor bends. Only way to eliminate was to sit at about 60-70k/h.
Tyres back to 36, no death wobbles, but wobbles on LF bump through left handers on freeway again.

tie rod ends were checked, felt smooth to manoeuvre up to what felt like the end of their articulation. checked wheels for balance again.
I just put up with it for a while 'driving around it', wasn't death wobbles annoyance, except if I ever wanted to drive on low tyre pressures!
When under the car doing oil, I use the drag link to move myself on my carpet/mat grab onto the tube and shift myself.
Did that and felt the drag link 'drop' or slip as it rotated.
What I thought was an ok tie rod end for about 20-30° or rotation actually had more like 40° rotation.. the last few degrees were just very sticky until U pushed it past that point, where it just flopped .. not the smooth movement I got for most of it's movement.
Anyhow, 4 tie rod ends bought, drag link easy to fit up changed just the drag link ends(to start with) and wobbles be gone!
I tried with tyres down to 20psi .. and no more wobbles. (that is, if I ever go play in sand and HAD to drive on road with low tyres for whatever reason, I could now do more than 60k/h if needed). ATM I run about 28psi all round.

What I learned when had a RRC for years, and the more important parts to consider in steering wobbles(in my experience with the RRC) were:
panhard rod bushes and bolts
shocker bushes
radius arm bushes and bolts.
What I now learned with the D1 is that a seemingly fine tie rod end.. may not actually be.

is there a specific speed it comes at, or a particular road situation(ie. as my LHF hitting bump through a left hand bend at 80+ k/h) kind of thing?