Thread: defender 130 puma wobble

Bill can be loose/ worn panhard rod bushes, or swivel preload and/ or worn radius rod bushes.

Jc

best of luck

Thanks for responses. I will check out your suggestions Justinc. It may be a Landrover service job as I am on the road. Are there any self-diagnosis tests I can try? The panhard rod seems firm, I tried that for movement. Not sure about how to test the others.
Bill

A quick test of panhard is to watch the bushes as someone else moves the steering wheel left to right repeatedly. This will also show up any play in the ball joints that may be contributing.

Radius arm bushes can be judged using a large screwdriver or pry bar between the radius arm and axle mount looking for excess play.

Other than that it would be time to lift each wheel look for excessive wheel bearing play.

But 2008 heavily loaded 130 over poor ground it quite likely could be the swivel bearing preload. There are ways to do it quick and dodgy but the best practice would be to strip each swivel down and replace bearings and seals...

steve

Thanks Roverrescue. I have not found any excessive bearing play in either front wheel. I had to tighten the rear right outer bearing nut as I noticed play in that while changing a wheel. The other rear wheel was fine.
I was thrown for a while, thinking it must be tyre/wheel balance related as the problem surfaced when I replaced four tyres in Emerald Qld after travelling the Great Central Road, the Oodnadatta and Birdsville Tracks and the Diamantina up to Winton. I have had the wheels balanced and rebalanced and replaced the steering damper but the problem persists.
I have booked the vehicle into Newcastle Landrover on Monday to see if they can fix the problem
Thanks again for advice.
Bill

I took the Defender to Hunter Landrover in Newcastle yesterday. I think they have identified the problem.
Apparently the King wheels I am running are not centering on the balancer - the centre hole is slightly out of round and they need a 5 stud adaptor so that the wheel can be lined up on the studs. So in effect every time they are put on a balancer without an adaptor they line slightly differently and always appear out of balance. When they are rebalanced they are just weighted differently but not balanced correctly.
The tyre people that Hunter sent the wheels to do not have a five stud adaptor and I am trying to chase one down in Newcastle, or anywhere for that matter.
Does anyone know where I might source one? It seems like a handy tool to keep with me on my travels.
Thanks.
Bill

What about an on-car balance?

Not my field of expertise, but I think this is what you need:
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/verandah/2...ed-read-4.html
Rich.