[T3] Front beam is loose

[Bobsnotch at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/9/2012 4:58:01 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
nurofiz at knology.net writes:

Yesterday I rotated the tires, as the outer tread of both front tires  
showed considerably more wear than the middle and inner treads.  Rotated  back 
to front on same side.  The rear tires were in better shape.   The rear tires 
are 9 months old, the front tires are two years  old.

Today driving to and from work (15 miles one way over hill and  dale - 
mostly freeway speeds) the steering wheel was not as jiggly.  It  seems before, 
it would oscillate the most when no rotation was on the steering  wheel, and 
would go away with a slight turn to the left or the right (mostly  to the 
left).  In retrospect, it seems that at times these oscillations  would grow 
in amplitude (if allowed to continue) and would wrest the steering  wheel 
from my grip.  Again, as I said before, braking would stop it and  I'm pretty 
sure turning the wheel would stop it too.

The problem seems  to have gone away with tire rotation, but I'm still not 
happy with the axial  play in the upper torsion arms, and yes, I DID adjust 
the right side per the  Bentley Manual.  A front-end alignment with new ball 
joints was done 9  months ago.





The tire wear on the outer edges can come from either the toe in setting  
being off, or something loose like the sway bar (but most likely the toe in  
setting). If rotating the tires fixed most (or all) of the shimmying, then  
you'll need to have the toe in checked before you wear the outer edges of 
this  set of fronts. The balance of your shimmy is probably in the sway bar 
now. Since  you've done the upper adjustment recently (like in the last couple 
of days), and  you've still got play, that means you're going to have to 
take a look at the  left side of the sway bar. But, IF it's been longer than  
that, you'll need to do it again. I've found that sometimes (if it's  been a 
long while between adjustments) that you'll need to do it several times  to 
get it to actually take a set. I don't know why, but sometimes they like  
to be a PIA. :O 
 
When looking at the left side, there's 2 things to note. One is whether or  
not the metal cap on the end is still there, and 2 is IF it's gone, how far 
the  bar is in place inside the rectangle. If the cap is still there, 
usually that  end is fine. But IF it's missing, that tells us, that end is loose, 
and is  moving to the right when you adjust the right end. That's when you 
have to pull  the bar out, and tear down the left side, and roll the bar 
over to put a new  dimple in it, or install a replacement bar (if you have one).
 
By the way, I only mentioned the tires before, because I had a vibration on 
 my 65 Notch, that would come in at 53 mph, and stay until it got up to 61 
mph  (it was a real PIA trying to drive my normal 55 mph route). And it 
would  literally shake the steering wheel right out of your hands. :O I had 
those  tires re-balanced 3 times, and never got rid of the vibration, until I 
replaced  them. Everything else on the front end had been checked, and 
re-checked,  adjusted and re-adjusted (all new parts too, from ball joints to tie 
rod ends,  to even rotors, and 3 different steering dampeners :O), but 
nothing would fix it  until the tires were replaced. I don't know what the real 
problem was with them,  but replacing the tires fixed my issue on it. Just 
something to think about.  

Bob 65 Notch  S with sunroof and IRS (Krusty)
64 T-34 Ghia  (Wolfie)
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