Wheel wobble

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Mustbemental

Mustbemental

New Member
Posts
686
Location
East Dorset
And so it begins!

Just been out for a drive in my 90 and its got a heck of a wobble on the steering at speeds above 30 mph.

Its not that bad in a straight line but if you go round a corner, left or right handed, its pretty disconcerting to say the least, the faster you corner the worse the wobble and if you hit a bump its like a massive tank slapper on a motor bike!

After doing a search on here it sounds like it could be the steering damper to me but maybe there are other things wrong as well?

Any one have any ideas? Or any idea what I need to go have a look at?

I can't see any thing obvious underneath it and the wheel nuts seem to be fine.

Cheers
Mental
 
Steering damper, track rod ends, hub nuts or swivel pins ... Just to get you started!

Enjoy being a member of the Landy mechanics club!:D
 
The landy mechanic is going to love me this weekend! Just spoke to the bloke I bought it from and looked in the pile of receipts he gave me and it had the TRE's done on the last MOT!
 
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Don't go paying out to get stuff done . Moneys best spent on tools cos boy are you going to be needing them ;) . It's all simple stuff though and what owning a Land Rover 's all about .time to get ye mits dirty
 
Rusty Spanner said:
Don't go paying out to get stuff done . Moneys best spent on tools cos boy are you going to be needing them ;) . It's all simple stuff though and what owning a Land Rover 's all about .time to get ye mits dirty
Click to expand...

Trees and stuff made out of wood........... I'm fine!

Stuff made out of metal.................not so good!
 
Take a look at the steering drop arm too. Mine was knackered (the splines or whatever they're called) were worn - replaced with new bolt, new washers etc and the steering is miles better. I always put it down to it being a land rover ;)
 
gse1986 said:
Take a look at the steering drop arm too. Mine was knackered (the splines or whatever they're called) were worn - replaced with new bolt, new washers etc and the steering is miles better. I always put it down to it being a land rover ;)
Click to expand...

I have no idea what that is! yet!
 
i had 285/75/16 tyres on boost alloy all fine
took them off last week to get them powder coated
put a set of 5 spoke disco alloys on with 235/16
and drove off what a fright a got 30 mph tank slapper
could not understand it
checked wheels were mating on hubs all fine some times you can get above 30 40 50
but as soon as you hit uneven road surface goes mental only way to stop it is slow right down until wobble goes
checked all i can all ok
so putting it down to wheel balance
will wait to get wheels back from pwder coaters get them on and hope all is well ???

when i was checking things front flange on trasfere box had a bit play??
but was ok when big wheels were on its since putting the smaller 1s on
 
Had this the other day with my 110, went through the above list of possibilities and more, and finally found the issue.

The RHS wheel was off balance (not an issue normally) and the RHS wheel bearing was slightly loose ( due to being new and bedding in) so as you cornered the off center load on the bearing combined with the wheel being off balance caused massive vibration, nipped up the wheel bearing, problem solved!!
 
Mustbemental said:
So what does that mean?
Click to expand...

swivel pins are the bits at the top and bottom of the swivel joint (the chrome ball but the front wheels that allows them to turn)
Preload is the amount of effort needed to turn the swivel joint by hand (without steering arms connected) this is adjusted with adding/removing shims to the top of the joint.

Guide to Defender Swivel Ball Replacement | Repair My Landrover

Busters guides are excellent, they are either on his (?) website, or on here
I tend to use the ones from his website alot, as they include some manual pages as well.
 
A classic cause of front wheel wobble, especially after hitting a bump, is knackered swivel pins. As already said they are the bits that allow the two halves of the swivel casings (big silver or rusty ball like things on each end of front axle) to move when conering. Fitting stonger dampers merely covers up the underlying problem until no amount of damping will stop the wobble.
 
Just taken it into my mates garage to have a look see and it is the swivel pin bearings, near side is the most fooked!

On the plus side apart from the panard rod being on the wrong way round and the swivel pin death wobble he couldn't fault it and he's a landy owner and mechanic so I'm well happy! :)
 
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