1979 - 1983 AMC Spirits and 1978 - 1983 AMC Concords > Rear Suspension/Rear Axle/Rear Brakes

Wheel wobble

(1/3) > >>

WoodenBirdOfPrey:
I'm still working on Virginia, AKA project "more wrong than I thought".

At speeds above 60-65mph it develops a shake.  It doesn't feel like the front end, as the wheel stays still and calm, the whole car tends to shake so I started looking towards the back axle.

If I put the rear up on a jack and put the car in gear both rear wheels seem to wobble side to side about a quarter inch out at the tread.  The tires are BFG All terrains, purchased new and balanced less than 1,000 miles ago, and my memory is fuzzy but I think the shake was present since I bought the car with the old tires on it. 

I just swapped the front and rear wheel on the passenger side and tried the same test again.  Same result, I'm getting a very noticable side to side wobble.  I'm pretty sure it isn't bent wheels because it seems highly unlikely that 3 wheels are all bent the same amount ( I haven't tried the front driver's side yet )

So what may I be looking at here?  My mind goes straight to the axle shafts, as the early models were known for weakness, even though this was caused by human error during installation.  I have no idea how to check that theory though.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

WoodenBirdOfPrey:
Additionally, the car has the 5 spoke steel XJ/YJ wheels on it.  It doesn't look like there should be any clearance issues with the little bolts that hold the brake drums on, and I never heard of anyone else having this issue, but that still doesn't rule out the possibility.  I may have to drag one of the factory alloys from the parts car down to the garage and see if I have the same wobble.

Prafeston:
Did you try running it without the wheels mounted? See if the hub is also wobbling?

WoodenBirdOfPrey:
No, I don't know if the wobble would be noticeable or not, especially since the drums aren't the smoothest surfaces.

carnuck:
Got any spare wheels to put on and see? Could be a twisted (about to break) axle. '80-82 had an issue with the RH side being overtightened from the factory by accident.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page