wow had to come home and clean my britches awhile ago.

[v8danh]

well last week i got the bucket out for its first shake down run.put about 50 miles on it and everything went pretty good.i noticed it was pretty darty with the steering so my thaughts were too much tow out.so before i took it out today i turned the tie rod about 10 1/2 turns to tow in a little.well everything was doing good on the back roads not as darty any more but when i got to the 4 lane and got up to speed all heck broke loose.front end started bouncing side to side violently i crossed into the other lane luckily there was no other vehicles there and faught it back into my lane and slowed enough for it to quit bouncing and got it into the emergency lane and continued to the gas station just down the hill.i pulled in gathered my sences and got the tool box out of the back loosened the jam nuts and proceeded to turn the tie rod back to its origanal position.didn't do it any more after that but i kept a watch on my speed and if the tires looked to be bouncing any i slowed down.that was scary.how much tow in or out should it run with?i have heard 1/8 inch in but mine is set with tow out now and does not like tow in.not sure how much tow out it has now but i am going to get the tape measure out tomar and do some serius checking in this area.sorry for the long posts i have seen others that have xperianced the same death wabble before but didn't realize how scary it was until i experianced it my self.wow is all i can say.lol.thanks Dan.

 

[RPM]

Glad you got it under control. Mine likes to be toed out also.

 

[tfeverfred]

When I was first starting to roll mine, I played around with it toe in/out. I had the front end do the same thing once. I got her home and I checked and measured and ending up setting her at 1/8" OUT. She drove great after that. What you'll find with these cars is that there is no set formula. Do an adjustment and take her where you won't get in trouble. Did she go out around 55MPH-60MPH?

What kind of brake setup are you running up front? The GM early setup works, but some folks have said you have to balance the tire/rim with the rotor mounted. My present project is going to run GM intermediates up front and if set up properly, they'll work. You just have to set 'em up.

PS: Be careful out there. It hurts.

 

[Lee_in_KC]

What are you running for shocks on the front? Did you have your front wheels balanced? Have you checked for slop in your steering train? Lots of opportunities for slop... steering box... drag link rod ends... tie rod ends... king pins... front wheel bearings tight?

 

[v8danh]

When I was first starting to roll mine, I played around with it toe in/out. I had the front end do the same thing once. I got her home and I checked and measured and ending up setting her at 1/8" OUT. She drove great after that. What you'll find with these cars is that there is no set formula. Do an adjustment and take her where you won't get in trouble. Did she go out around 55MPH-60MPH?

What kind of brake setup are you running up front? The GM early setup works, but some folks have said you have to balance the tire/rim with the rotor mounted. My present project is going to run GM intermediates up front and if set up properly, they'll work. You just have to set 'em up.

PS: Be careful out there. It hurts.

around 55 is exactly where it went out.it never did it till i changed the tow adjustment and once i changed it back it seemed to do fine i was just too chicken to get up much speed incase it did it again.lol i will check it tomar to see where it is set at and play with it a little till i find a happy medium between darty steering and violent shaking lol.i saw the posts about your accident Fred.my heart goes out to ya man.how is it working out so far?

 

[v8danh]

What are you running for shocks on the front? Did you have your front wheels balanced?

no front shocks yet.i have a set of friction shocks but dont have them on yet.they will be on before i take it out again .i think they would have helped keep it under control some.the firs time i took it out when the tow was set out it did fine just seemed to steer darty.so i tried to change the tow and it helped with the steering problem but created a worse one with the bouncing .thanks Dan.

 

[Lee_in_KC]

My front end is dead tight. Wheels have been dynamically balanced on the car. Toe-in is 1/8". I get a death wobble at about 55 mph. I have no shocks. I'm hoping shocks will fix it.

 

[donsrods]

Isn't it FUN when the front end does that?? :dance: When it does, you never want it to do it again, and you keep thinking it will.

Mine did it on the way to Billetproof as I got on the interstate and kicked it hard. At about 80 the front end went nuts, and I hit the brake hard to get it under control. Looked in the rearview mirrors and saw Greyhound bus grille right behind me. Needless to say, I drove very slow to Don Garlits place and back home. I had my front tires rebalanced, reset my toe in slightly less, and put brand new tube shocks on it. So far so good, no more death wobble.

My Son's had this problem too, and we tracked it down to several things:

1) In our haste to finish the car, the wheelbase was off 9/16 of an inch side to side. We cranked out the radius rods to make both sides the same.

2) He had too much caster. Our protractor got dropped and was off several degrees. He had something like 10 degrees caster, so we reset it to 6 degrees.

3) Too much toe in. Set it at 1/16 inch.

4) This was a biggie..........his friction shock on the passenger side worked loose and was doing nothing. It worked loose one time after that and it death wobbled again, so we cranked it tight and double nutted it. No more problem.

5) He had a bent rim on the back. Brand new, out of the box, and Coker exchanged it for a good one.

6) His Corvair (Flaming River) steering box was not adjusted tight enough, too much play. We set it on the high spot and tightened it down so there is very little play.

We are both running bias ply tires because we like the look of them, but for a while I was considering changing to radials to get rid of our problems. Looks like we are ok now though.

Don

Oh, on my '27 I got a slight wobble one time, and 1/8 inch toe OUT cured that one.

 

[GT63]

well last week i got the bucket out for its first shake down run.put about 50 miles on it and everything went pretty good.i noticed it was pretty darty with the steering so my thaughts were too much tow out.so before i took it out today i turned the tie rod about 10 1/2 turns to tow in a little.well everything was doing good on the back roads not as darty any more but when i got to the 4 lane and got up to speed all heck broke loose.front end started bouncing side to side violently i crossed into the other lane luckily there was no other vehicles there and faught it back into my lane and slowed enough for it to quit bouncing and got it into the emergency lane and continued to the gas station just down the hill.i pulled in gathered my sences and got the tool box out of the back loosened the jam nuts and proceeded to turn the tie rod back to its origanal position.didn't do it any more after that but i kept a watch on my speed and if the tires looked to be bouncing any i slowed down.that was scary.how much tow in or out should it run with?i have heard 1/8 inch in but mine is set with tow out now and does not like tow in.not sure how much tow out it has now but i am going to get the tape measure out tomar and do some serius checking in this area.sorry for the long posts i have seen others that have xperianced the same death wabble before but didn't realize how scary it was until i experianced it my self.wow is all i can say.lol.thanks Dan.

I had a similar issue, but it wasn't toe that caused it., I had the caster off by 2 degrees. Went from 7 degrees leaned back to 5 degrees leaned back and all was well. I have 1/8 toe in and I know for a fact it's smooth up to 90mph.

 

[SRISKA]

My '23 did the same thing until I sent the tow-in dead straight, and reduced the tire pressure. Now it is fine....after I cleaned out the seat!

 

[v8danh]

thanks for all the replies fella's.after i checked the tow adjustment the other day i realized it was all my fault that caused this problem.when i decided to change the adjustment i should have measured to see how much i changed it.ends up i had about 3/4 to 1 inch tow in after i made the first adjustment and didnt check to see how much i moved it.thats what caused this wheel hopping experiance.i have now learned to make small adjustments and check them before i drive it.the hard way to learn but it could have been worse.i now have the tow set at 1/8 tow out and it drives great around town haven't had a chance to try it at speed yet but i am going to wait till i get my shocks hooked up.thanks Dan.

 

[Track T-4]

Is there a technique to measuring the toe-in/toe-out? Where is the measurement taken - at the wheel. the tire...? I'm assuming you use a tape measure but the nose/grille, chassis, axle, radiator is in the way on mine.

 

[Duke]

There is a way to cheat, not fancy but it works. Find the center of the tire tread pattern on the front tires, and mark the center of the tire. Use a plumb bob and drop a line from the center front down to the floor and the center rear down to the floor and mark on floor ( Put masking tape on floor to mark on ). Do that for both front tires. Move car out of the way and measure the Distance between the front marks and the distance between the rear marks. The difference between the front and rear distances is the toe in/ toe out. All you need is a tape measure and a marks allot and masking tape.

 

[Todd]

A quick and easy cheat (with a friends help). Two 4 foot levels and two tape measures. Since these are buckets it works well. Place your level across the outside of the wheel, pointing front to back, where the spindle nut would be. Have buddy mirror you on other wheel, check the measurement between the levels on the front while your buddy checks the rear. Make sure you have a friend who you trust to read a tape, if not forget the second tape and check both sides yourself.

 

[lanceks1]

Did a lot on mine to get a steady front end. 5deg caster, 1/8" toe out, and hyd. shocks were my answer. Didn't think caster would be so important. I just lowered the back suspension 2", and just that changed my caster enough to get the wheels bouncing again. Moved it forward to 5deg and all is well again. Plus I moved the toe-in/out to straight ahead, and it works. At the beginning my front end would bounce around the center pivot of the spring, side to side. Know it starts to (@58mph), and the hyd shocks stop it until 62mph when it stops on its own.:lol:

 

[Track T-4]

After reading a couple of threads it sounds like toe-in works for some and toe-out works for others. What does this adjustment do to fix the problem and why the difference? It seems straight ahead (no toe-in/out) would be the correct setting.

 

[Todd]

After reading a couple of threads it sounds like toe-in works for some and toe-out works for others. What does this adjustment do to fix the problem and why the difference? It seems straight ahead (no toe-in/out) would be the correct setting.

It has been alot of years since I have thought of any of this. Bias ply tires are stiff without alot of give and radials are soft and have give. Everyone seems to understand toe in / toe out / and zero toe l l. When you drive, the front tires are pushing, and want to toe out. Without give in a bias ply tire it is going to fight, slip and possibly hop. We use to set all bias ply cars at 1/16 to 1/8 inch toe out and radial cars at zero to 1/16 inch toe in.
A properly tightened steering gear is important too. With the wheels straight ahead, loosen the jamb nut with a wrench no more than a quarter turn, while holding the wrench turn the screw in until you feel a hard spot, keep that screw held while tightening the jamb nut. Its a real two handed job.

Keep in mind I haven't done alinements (I worked at a Bear shop) in 18 years. This could be a bit cloudy, feel free to clear it up if I goofed something.

 

[raven]

The excat same thing is happening to mine (I just posted a question) at 55mph.
I plan on changing the toe-in to either 0 or 1/18" out and adding tube shocks. I hope that fixes it...
r

 

[ACJC]

The dope I've read is not more 1/8" toe in for bias ply tires and 0 to 1/8" toe out for radials. I running close to zero toe and zero caster and I find myself chasing the car on certian road surfaces. Fresh paving the car handles straight with no wander up to 70 mph.

Balancing and proper air pressure are a must.

JC

 

[Todd]

The dope I've read is not more 1/8" toe in for bias ply tires and 0 to 1/8" toe out for radials. I running close to zero toe and zero caster and I find myself chasing the car on certian road surfaces. Fresh paving the car handles straight with no wander up to 70 mph.

Balancing and proper air pressure are a must.

JC

Did you mean camber? Zero caster would be a nightmare .