I am onto my last challenge of getting this car finally road ready, dependable, and capable of light track duty! I just need a little advice.

The problem is that once I start to get over 50 mph and above the car has a nasty vibration in the right front wheel that makes one feel like it is best to slow down. Once the brakes are applied the vibration goes away or stabilizes. The problem is more pronounced if I need to make a right turn of any sort at 50+ mph.

I am asking for advice on diagnosis. I have replaced the front wheel bearings and that did not solve anything except for that it was a good idea anyways.

I am thinking is this something that would be ball joints, tie rod, or the Rack? The steering feels great and I would believe both sides would show some effect if it was on the way out.

Or would a warped rotor be the culprit? The vibration is severe, and I do have 18' inch Turbo twist wheels. I have jacked the wheel up and did the 6-12 position while twisting it. I do get some play, just not sure if that is the answer. Should the wheel not be able to move at all?

Thankyou for any ideas you offer, I am excited my car is finally almost done. (for now)

 

wheel bearings

 

the wheel bearings are only suppose to have a very minimal play. the bearings should not but fully tight. its really hard to diag something like this over the internet. put your hands at 6-12 and 3-9 and shake. have someone look under the car and see whats moving...

 

old rule of thumb for the wheel bearing nut is that the washer behind it should be to move just a little with a screwdriver trying to move it.

If you say it's the point of dangerous, agree really hard to diagnose, but I'd pull the wheel, check the caliper and the hub, if all good, I'd still pull the hub off to see if the spindle isn't cracked. If you were working on this to get it on the road, did you tighten everything down as you went - easy to do, we've all missed a step here and there. good luck but be safe.

 

I can say I have 2 ford e250 vans and on both tires and rotors up front. Anytime I hit 50 violent shake till about 60. Either tires need to be rotated or rotors warped up front. Both vans and always happens if I let either go too long

 

Swap front wheels left to right. If vibration moves to the other side you have a bent wheel or out-of-balance wheel. If vibration stays on the right after wheel swap, you have eliminated one possibility with not much effort. You mentioned warped rotor - definitely a possibility. A dial indicator to check runout is the best way to determine warp, but you can sometimes get a sense of rotor condition just by seeing if the drag is consistent when you rotate the hub (wheel removed). Warped rotor will often drag on the brake pads unevenly as you rotate the hub. You should press on the brake pedal first then rotate the hub. After one rotation a warped rotor will set the pads back into the calipers, so you only get one rotation for this check but you can repeat the check as many times as you like by pressing the brake pedal and rotating the hub.

After these two easy checks, if you still have not found the source of the vibration (and you have already done wheel bearings), then look for bent spindle, worn A-arm bushings, worn ball joints and bad strut bearing at the top of the strut.

 

Thankyou for the input.

I did swap wheels when I changed the stockers to 18'. And the problem became slightly more prominent after the switch to 18' wheels.

Other thing I could add is that the problem still was/is there when I changed the wheel bearings. I do not think that is the problem. I was hoping that swapping them out would have cured it.

I will try the brake drag to maybe get an idea of the rotor. Otherwise find a shop that could test the runout.

 

Play in the inner tie rod, or ball joints. Jack up the front , grab the right wheel @9 and @3 , feel for play and see where it's coming from, maybe the strut is loose , u have to check these things Tim. Do the same thing @12 and @ 6. Have a friend help so you can physically see where the play is. But check the 2 bolts on the strut and the strut itself

 

A warped rotor would cause a shimmy when the brakes are applied, the problem wouldn't go away. Definitely check for play as mentioned above. These cars have pretty simple front suspension, so there aren't a lot of possibilities.

 

Follow up.

Thankyou everyone for the help in how to diagnose what is going on. Here is what I found.

The front bushing bolt was loose. I tightened it and that has cut the vibration down a lot. But it still persists enough that it must be fixed right away.

The problem lies in the ball joint and bearings. Especially the ball joint. Stuff is just old and worn out. This car was tracked a lot before I bought it, and it shows. She was driven hard, and put in wet

So I am going to buy new ball joints and bushings and then get to work on it.

 

Agree with the tire swap comment. Makes it easy to rule out. Good luck

 

I had a lower arm that even after rebuilding the ball joint still shook at speed. Finally broke down and bought a new to me one (thanks XSBoost!). Now things are much better. I guess the arm was either bent from the PO hitting a curb at speed or the ball joint pocket was toast.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Maybe I should just get a new arm because my car was wrecked on the right side of it from previous owner.

 

Just for anyone looking with a similar problem, check the Lug Nuts = 94 ftlbs.