MG-Cars.com
MG MGB Technical Wheel Shakes BBS discussion at MG-Cars.net
MG-Cars.net
Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.
Recommendations
Parts
MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.
|
|
MG MGB Technical - Wheel Shakes
| Hi: When I go above 60-65 MPH (in my 69 BGT), the steering wheel shakes quite a bit (it is perfect at lower speeds). I took it to have the wheels balanced and tire pressure checked, thinking that was the problem, but I didn't really notice much of a difference. My car does not have overdrive, is this the problem? Or could it be something more sinister, like mechanical problems? If it's normal for a non-overdrive vehicle, I can live with it, I just want to make sure it is not anything dangerous. Also, when I am going slowly, and use the brakes to stop, I hear a slight klunk sound. Any ideas on this? Thanks!! PS- I just purchased this car 1 week ago, before that it was VERY rarely ever driven. I had a mechanic check it out, and he gave everything thumbs up, however he was not an MG expert. PS- Car has 55,000 actual miles on it. Thanks again! |
| A. Bar |
| The wheel shake is not normal. Are the wheels wire or steel? If wire, they need to be balanced by someone familiar with wire wheels. Balancing with wheel weights will not work if the wheels themselves are not true. The clunking sound can be one of a few things. First, check the front brake caliper bolts. If they become loose, the calipers can shift when braking causing a clunk as you describe. Another cause can be worn out splines on wire wheels or their hubs. Hopefully that is not the case since the only solution is replacing wheels and hubs completely! Another source of clunking can be the rear axle shifting. Check all rear suspension and axle fasteners and tighten as necessary. One more thing... find a MG expert. These cars are nothing like most other cars and the average mechanic, no matter how competent, will not be able to properly maintain it. Good luck! |
| Steve Simmons |
| Usually the shake is a sign of wheel imbalance. Having OD is nice, but that has nothing to do with this. |
| Andy Blackley |
| Hi Andy: Where is Chandon? I am in Cincinnati. Any clue where I can find someone who can properly balance my wheels? Or do I just need to grab a phone book, and call around? I took it to a tire place to have them balanced, I guess this was a mistake :) Also, will all 4 tires balance affect this shake, or is it primarily the front wheels? Thanks!! |
| A. Bar |
| The front wheels will shake the steering wheel. The rear wheels will shake the chassis. You can try swapping wheels front to rear and see if the shimmy feels any different. |
| Steve Simmons |
| As Steve says, wire wheels take special attention. If you have steel wheels, my experience is that some tire shops have trouble mounting them on the balancing machine, and so they wobble and don't get balanced properly. Jack up the front wheels and spin them, make sure they're not bent or oval. Then take them to a tire shop for balancing and ask them to check for bent wheels. If you saw the wheels are straight but the shop thinks they're bent, they didn't get the wheels mounted properly. Based on the willingness of the manager, ask them to do it properly or take them somewhere else. You might also have a problem with loose wheel bearings, or the fluid may have leaked out of the steering rack. If you're not sure how to check these things, find a local MG club to start getting contacts of good MG mechanics. There's a web site for NAMBGR which probably has links to a lot of clubs. |
| Matt Kulka |
| I just noticed that there are actually two threads with this same question -- I just posted an answer on the other one.... Most of the folks who hang out here look at MGB General and MGB Technical, so there's no need to post questions in both fora. Since this is a technical question, why don't we confine the discussion to this thread, if for no other reason than it's handy to have all the information in one place. Cheers! Rob |
| Rob Edwards |
| Hi: You're right, I apologize. I am new to the board, so I posted my question on the general board, then realized there was a technical section, oops. I promise to be more careful in the future :) Thanks! |
| A. Bar |
| If you have 'rostyle' (metal disc) wheels you will probably have to find someone who can do a spin balance on the car without removing the wheels. This is an old fashioned technique that is disappearing rapidly so some detective work in your local area might be in order. This is needed because the 'rostyle' wheels are most likely bent. Replacing the 'rostyle' wheels with the minilite look-alikes is a very good idea. Even then you have to find a place to balance the wheels that can balance them on the inside AND outside at the same time. The shops always tell you that you don't need to do this but, if you don't they won't be balanced. Believe it or not Sam's can do this. |
| Richard Smith 1 |
| If the wheel is indeed bent, it needs to be replaced. On the car balancing won't help. As my front-end guy told me, "I can balance a cinder block, but that doesn't mean it will roll right!" :-) |
| Rob Edwards |
| Angela....Tire discounters in West Chester did a good job of balancing the wire wheels for my MGA and found one bent (now the spare). You might also check to make sure the wheel nuts are tight especially on the front. As mentioned above, it could be a wheel is bent or some of the wires are loose causing the shimmy and the clunking. |
| Fritz |
| Hi Fritz: I actually went to a tire discounters near my house. He balanced the wire wheels, and said they all looked to be in very good shape. He had some experience with MGs, because someone he knows owns one. He only balanced to front tires, and told me to go back if I wanted the rear ones done. I really don't know if he checked the splines etc. I think I will go back and have him (and me) check those, as well as have the rear wheels done just in case. Thanks!! |
| A. Bar |
| Could be kingpins |
| S Best |
| I tend to agree with those who indicate it is probably the wheels and tires. My '69 MGB-GT had gotten to the point where I could not have the wheels balanced where it ran smooth at higher speeds. However, I did have well over a hundred thousand miles on the wire wheels. I finally put new hubs and wire wheels on and now its extreemly smooth even at higher speeds. I also had the clink when putting on brakes. That has disappeared too. That said, one more place you might want to check is the u-joint. I believe sometimes when one first starts going to the bad it will vibrate the car at higher speeds. I've gone through several over the years and one was difficult to tell it was bad when it was on the car. Removing the drive shaft and closely inspecting it revealed the u-joint problem. FWIW Paul |
| Paul S. Canup |
| I totally recommed richard Smith's answer. Find someone that can balance the wheels with a spin balancer. It works much better in that it takes in to account any issues when the wheel is actually on the car. You did not mention how old the tires are? If these are old, they could also be a source of the shimmy. - Especially if the car has been setting on them for any time. |
| Bruce Cunha |
| Angela..all good advice above.when you get it isolated, make a good long term decision. Painted wire wheels are tough and expensive to maintain. Chrome wires are more expensive but can be tuned without repainting, etc. assuming you like the wires and want to keep them. Changing to non-wires requires rear-end changeover too so that is an extensive project. |
| J.T. Bamford |
| Hey A., If it has been determined your drive splines are worn (likely) you should get new drive splines to go with your new wires. And don't cheap out on the wheels..you get what you pay for. The Dayton wire wheels do not require retruing or retightening, and you can opt for tubeless sealing (get rid of those nasty inner tubes). The painted wheels are durable, I've been running a set on my MGB for a couple years of spirited driving. The chrome wheels are built with polished stainless steel spokes, so breakage is eliminated. The other wires wheels (built in India) use chrome plated stainless spokes that are weakened by the plating process (hydrogen embrittlement). And nobody has chrome as good as Dayton! Buy Ohio, right, Angela? ;) IMPORTANT! When balancing wire wheels they MUST be balanced ON THE CAR. The typical off-car computer balancer CANNOT hold these wheels straight. Rich |
| Richard Cutright |
| This is all great to know. I do love the wire wheels, but hopefully I won't have to replace them, as there are a ton of other things I want to get done on the car also. Of course if I have to, I have to. The tires are a definite possibility, because although they have about 95% tread, they do look rather old, and I would not be surprised if they've been sitting on there for quite a while. Hopefully that and proper balancing will fix it, since I am sure this would be MUCH cheaper than whole new wheels. Thanks again for all the tips and ideas!! |
| A. Bar |
| If you really don't have the budget, you can probably find a good used set of hubs and wheels for a fraction the price of new. Of course new wheels and hubs are far superior and better not only for short term but also in the long run. |
| Steve Simmons |
| I wouldn't suggest used wire wheels and hubs. Most if not all were removed because they were defective. If you don't know how to inspect and check them you'll end up with the same problems you have. When I bought my GT I found one usable hub, left rear and two usable wheels. The Morgan web site has lots of good wire wheel information. http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/wheelsindex.htm More information is at; http://www.hendrixwirewheel.com/wirewheels.html For more wire wheel information see: http://www.ntahc.org/techtips/WheelBalance1.htm For even more information See: http://www.mwsint.com/Fitting.htm#Points%20to%20check FWIW, Clifton |
| Clifton Gordon |
| ...and this one, too: http://www.daytonwirewheel.com/html/balancespline2.htm One of my personal favorites! |
| Richard Cutright |
| BEWARE old tires on wire rims! Since the air is held in the tube and friction between the tube and the tire causes them to run a little hotter than a tubeless set-up, tires have a habit of shedding the belts at speed due to deterioration that is unnoticed until it is too late. I had a set of 90% tread michelin XZX's self destruct at 85mph... NOT a happy situation. Later I had a Kelly Metric (both tyres now unavailable, by the bye) front come apart (my fault... waited too long to replace) and it popped the headlight bucket out (which landed on the bonnet, again at 80+ mph). Don't trust old tires with wire rims. |
| mike! |
| I would go a step farther and say don't trust old tires at all. For highway use I wouldn't drive a tire over 10 years old no matter how little it has been used. |
| Steve Simmons |
| I have wires and had some of the problems that A. Bar talked about. First, the balance of a wire wheel is not easy. Here in Seattle there are shops that say that they can balance a wire wheel, but they really don't know how to do it right. It took me several tries to find some one who could do it right. It made a real difference to have a true balance on the wheel. Second, leaking or bad shocks on the front can also cause problems at speed. Check the oil level in the shocks and check to see if they are leaking. Tird, it is possible that the bearings in the steering column are worn. If you can move the wheel up and down when the car is sitting, you will get some steering wheel shake. There is a replacement bearing that can be purchased for the 68+ steering columns. Replacement bearings can be purchased from http://shadetreemg.com/gem.htm |
| Jim Lema |
| A Check the production code on your tires to determine how old they are. I did a quick Google search on "tire date code" and found the link http://www.tuninglinx.com/html/a_tire_pd.html which gives a good explanation. I echo the others. Don't drive on old tires. Many years ago I drove my grandparent's car from California to Maryland. It didn't have that many miles on it and had not seen much use in the previous years. I lost 3 of the 4 tires in the first few hundred miles due to age even though the tread and sidewalls looked great. FWIW Larry |
| Larry Hallanger |
| Thank you all so much! Right now the car is broken down, hopefully it is just the alternator (which I suspect), so it should be repaired quickly. As soon as it is repaired The first thing I will do, is buy new tires and get a good balancing. It's funny, because I even asked the man at tire disounters whether my tires were good, and he told me the tread looked great. He didn't mention they may be too ancient to drive on, despite noticeable small cracks through out the rubber, and I told him they probably had been sitting for a very long time. As far as bearings in the steering column, in my mechanically challenged opinion, the steering wheel is very sturdy, no movement, or give at all. I will make sure to check other suggested causes. Thanks again!! |
| A. Bar |
| Thank you all so much! Right now the car is broken down, hopefully it is just the alternator (which I suspect), so it should be repaired quickly. As soon as it is repaired The first thing I will do, is buy new tires and get a good balancing. It's funny, because I even asked the man at tire disounters whether my tires were good, and he told me the tread looked great. He didn't mention they may be too ancient to drive on, despite noticeable small cracks through out the rubber, and I told him they probably had been sitting for a very long time. As far as bearings in the steering column, in my mechanically challenged opinion, the steering wheel is very sturdy, no movement, or give at all. I will make sure to check other suggested causes. Thanks again!! |
| A. Bar |
This thread was discussed between 22/06/2004 and 24/06/2004
MG MGB Technical index
This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGB Technical BBS is active now.