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Vibration through vehicle when steering right.


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Camel 1991 Defender 110 CSW with (new) BF mud terrain tyres 235/85/R16's

Seem to have got a strange vibration when driving at speeds over 45mph, but only going around right hand bends.

You feel the vibration through the floor more than the steering, but you feel it through that too.

I firstly put it down to mud terrain nobly tyres, but on experimenting, I don't get any vibration when doing the same actions the other way...

Anything under 40 and you don't feel a thing, I'm not sure if its getting worse or that I'm now tuned into it.

You feel the vibration as soon as the wheel goes off centre (only very slight movement needed).

Listed out for clicking or noises when turning at extreme locks at a slower speed and thats not revealed anything.

Also had a good wobble of the wheel, and everything feels solid, but need to jack up and try it again to be sure.

Has anyone got any idea's, before I pull my axles apart...

Cheers

Mav.

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hmm I might do that on the off chance, but the more I think about it, the more I really should take a look into the hubs and maybe the CV's purely to inspect... I don't have a history as to when they where last opened up, the swivel ball seals need doing to so might be a good opportunity to do some fettling/preventative maintenance... ergh, I fear the old CV argument looms... could be wrong though.

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I'd be surprised if someone of your experience made the mistake, but it's not a wobbly wheel, is it? Either loose wheel studs or sloppy bearings. I was going to suggest that the steering lock stops may be maladjusted, allowing the tread to foul the radius arm, but with full lock at 45mph I think you'd be running into bigger problems! It could be worn stub axles, which are hard to detect, unlike the wheel bearings themselves or worn swivel pins.

It could be worth checking your suspension bushes and brackets, especially the Panhard rod.

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hi,

If its only present when turning right, the vehicle is being thrown more heavily onto the left wheel. wear on wheel bearings and shock absorber is always worse on the left because we have to drive around so many right hand curves and roundabouts in this country.

I drove back from bristol after buying a 1988 110 with chunky wheels and it felt like my wheels were coming off every time I turned right. There was a hell of a lot of play in the left hand wheel bearing after I managed to get it home but it was scarey driving up the M4 expecting something to come off.

I'd check the left hand wheel bearing and maybe the power steering if you have it.

Eric

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Thanks for the response's chaps.

Well like I said I thought it was a wobbly wheel due to tyres, but just had them all swapped over and re-balanced and I'd have thought it would have been wobbling all the time of it was out of balance or properly loose... PAS box was brand new 2 weeks ago, I've just put new shocks up front, I'll check the panhard rod bushes as they made need doing, I've got a set of new bushes for the front rad arms ready to fit as I think they're a little tired anyways.

I'll pop the hub off the left wheel tonight and have a look. - I'd not thought of a worn stub axle... will pay close attention to it.

Will report back later.

Mav

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  • 2 months later...

Right, so I had firmly decided to rebuild each side of the front axle as the swivel ball oil seals where leaking so thought I'd do all the rest of the bits at the same time so finally got all the parts in and started on the front passenger side first, stripped everything down to the axle flange and was pleasantly surprised to see the joint was full of oil as apposed to water/rust and all the rest. It was a bit stinky when I started pulling it apart and the hub seal had obviously been weeping but hadn't fully let go, no outrageous wear on anything, although the main wheel bearing races where tarnished grey and were obviously on there way out due to some very light pitting. After Snaggers comments I decided to replace the stub axles and swivel bearings as seen as I was in there digging around - also put new stub axle bolts and swivel ball bolts in, all being high grade steel they do fatigue and are a pig if they break.

So 8hrs from start to finish, once you've cleaned, re-set bearings etc, been using it over the weekend and I think it might have solved the problem, although it did seem to be a bit temperamental, so I'll keep using her and see if it comes back. Got the parts for the drivers side too as the swivel ball seal is leaking so that one will get re built also.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So driving it about a bit I've found that the vibration has now moved to turning around left hand corners (only at speed) so got down to doing the drivers side too, which by the by was actually leaking more from the swivel ball seal...

After fighting with a calliper bolt that had stripped its head, wheel bearings and stub axle looked "ok" but started to look worn, something I did question was the hub nuts where more loose than I was expecting, Getting around to removing the raliko top pin bush I found the whole polished surface of the upper pin was fully stripped off and later inspection found there was a heck of a lot of play with the pin in the bush, strangely I couldn't pick this up with a standard jack up wheel wobble test. The CV got swapped out too as it was slightly damaged, and found some deep pitting on the swivel ball too, rather than change out I decided to do a little experiment and fill the pitted holes with epoxy and file flat, I'll be keeping an eye on it to see if it chews up the swivel ball oil seal or if it holds... (pitting only found at parts of the ball at the extremity of the wheel lock).

Will fully round this off once I've put it back together fully and done some road testing.

Mav

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You've done a lot of work there :o !

I know what you mean about the calliper bolts ( whizzed them all off mine - have RRC axle on the back and cleaned them up but ALL of them were a right bugger to get moving ! ) Did my passenger side swivel ball but mine didn't have raliko bush ( mines a 1989 pedegree :) ) just the later top and bottom bearings....and the older shims matched the new bearings admirably ! I re-filled with 1-shot grease.

My 265 tyres were just touching ( strangely on left hand full lock only ) and solved that with 35mm wheel spacers as lock stops weren't long enough !

Yours will be fine after rebuilding both ends ( feckin' unlucky if it isn't that !!! )

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