Posted by Keith in Washington on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at 11:04:11 :
In Reply to: Front end shimmy need some help posted by Ed Bevis on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 23:34:41 :
Yep this is very typical for the PW. It seems that at 35 MPH you get shimmy if you tires are not balanced. When you say everything is new do you mean everything in the front end. Tie rod ends, Spring busings and pins,Drag link busings (new and adjusted correctly), steering box adjustment. Then the wheel bearings and the bushing or bearings that the The front hubs rotate on must be adjusted properly. Also make sure that the steering arm is tight (mine had the bolts back off just a trce one time)
If there is any slop in any of the above any inbalance in the fron tires will be magnified big time.
For example my front spring bushings and pins on my PW were worn. When I replaced them I could not believe the difference. I had already fixed all the rest items. The difference really showed up when I hit a bump. After this fix there was no shimmy at all.
The front end of my WC53 Carryall has be gone through completely. Every thing was rebuilt and adjusted properly. I have a set of Michelin XL 9.00 X 16 tires on combat rims. I have never balanced any of the tires. There is absolutely no shimmy or any movement up front at any speed up to 75 MPH. It is amazing that the tires and wheels are so well balanced with out any balance weights. When I got the truck the front end was so sloppy that I could not go over 30 MPH with out feeling like the whole truck was going to shake apart. The difference was a total front end rebuild and new tires. All else is the same.