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MG MGB Technical - Steering wheel judder/wheel balance

I cant seem to get rid of steering wheel judder.
Have had the wheels balanced a number of times but I still get the wobble at about 60mph.
Is it possible to have hubs/discs balanced off the car and if so where would I go to get this done?
I am using 275mm dia vented/drilled discs maybe these are out of balance.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Mark
Mark Rawlins

Mark-
Have you checked your wheel bearings? It's also possible that you have a defective tire (out of round).
Steve S.

Could also be bad shocks. My V8 had a terrible shake around 70, disappeared with a new set.

Cheers,
Neil
Neil Cotty

Steve.
Wheelbearings are fine. Whole front end rebuilt but I still have the same problem with wheel wobble.
Neil.
I have telescopic shocks that are new so no problem there.
This is a problem that Ive had for some time and I would quite like to get it sorted.

Cheers

Mark
Mark Rawlins

I forgot to mention new tyres as well 205/50/15"
Mark Rawlins

Mark - Make sure that your steering rack has the proper amount of 90W gear lube in it. The lube oil in the rack serves as a damper as well as lubricating everything. Following that, if you are still having a problem, try removing the thinist shim from under the damper cover on the housing. These two items may help, at least minimize your problem. Good luck - Dave
David DuBois

Mark,

I had a set of very cheap locking wheel nuts on a car which produced wobble at about 60. Do have locking wheel nuts fitted and if so are they the same weight as the other nuts?
Peter Barrett

I have the same problem with my car. I was told It's likely the rostyle wheels and, because they don't have a flat back to them, some tire shops have trouble balancing them. The other problem is that the rotors could be out of ballance. There are places around that can balance the tire while on the car, so they take into account the rotors as well. I lost the name of the place that does them here so I haven't tried it. Check around your home town and see if there's a place that'll do it there.
Dave

If you replaced the king pins and the A-arm bushings, then you eliminated one of the most likely reasons for front end shake. Another very likely source are the wheels. I have found the MGB rostyle and disk wheels to not be very straight. You can determine this by taking it to a tire store and have them place them on the balance machine and spin them, while you are watching for wobble. You can also do it yourself at home by raising both rear wheels, starting the car and carefully putting it in first gear, and then watch the spinning wheels from behind. (Please make sure that the care is properly suspended with jack stands.) This will obviously only check the rear wheels. Put the front ones on the back and check them also. You shouldn't see more than about a 1/8" of up-and-down or side-to-side wobble. (or runout for those desiring fancy engineering words)
Tom Wright

Mark,

The same problem has puzzled me.

I had a steering wheel judder with my old tires at 60mph. I changed tyres and had wheels balanced and the problem went away for about 2 weeks. I then swapped fronts with back (a real pain with directional tyres) and the problem disappeared, so I must now have a dodgy tyre or wheel at rear which I need to check out at some time.

Steve,

I weighed my spare tyre at 38lbs which are 195x60x15 Dunlop SP200 with 5.5 Minilites.
Anyone else weighed their tyres?

Paul
Paul

Paul - heavy wheels!!

My 14inch minators with 185/70 14 Dunlop SP200 weigh in at 28 lbs
Chris Betson

Chris,

Lucky I have a V8 to lug them around, and dumped spare to compensate.

It does show that changing to 195 x 15 could add 40lb extra weight as mine are standard minilites.

If you get chance to weigh a few more wheels it may produce an intersting table.

Paul
Paul

Mark,
Use your spare wheel to substitute one of the wheels on your car. Drive it. If the shake is still there, go to the next wheel and substitue the spare for it. Continue until shake stops. Now you at least know which wheel is the culprit. I'm betting it's the tire. Most good tire warranty policies will replace this tire for you. Have the wheel checked for trueness first, though.

Been there, done that.

Scott
Scott Wooley

Interesting. I have the same thing around the same speed. The tires are fairly new, same with the bushings and such. Haven't done much about it other than go faster than 60.

Maybe I will try doing the wheel swap thing.

Jason
1970 roadster
Jason Coolbaugh

This thread was discussed between 20/01/2002 and 24/01/2002

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