Hi Folks,

Road was kinda dry today and I finished up early, so out for a wee run....

I was taking a long fastish right hand bend and Im getting a shudder thro the steering

Regular turns are fine and absolutely zero shake/shudder on straight roads. Just got a new MOT last week so I'm assuming nothing is obviously hanging off or outwith normal bounds.

Any thoughts?

Cheers
Gerry

Kingpins, track rod ends, shocker mounting plate lose on arm, crap record shockers, wheelnuts loose, wheel bearing maybe?

track rod ends
although they are spring loaded the springy movement is there to allow for machining tolerance of the ball

it may be that they need adjusting properly or that something else is gone in the steering - Kingpins the likley culprit

test by jacking and pushing in the wheel at the rear (10 to 4 0'clock position) and seeing how much movement there is against the spring

kink pin test is to grab wheel in line with a panel (10 past 8 O'clock)and rocking the wheel

48pop,
to add to the advice already given by Russell and Sean, if you can arrange things so that both front wheels are off the ground and the steering lock is engaged close to the 'straight ahead' position, that gives you something to push against while checking for excess play in any component.

For the track rod ends, when the steering ball has been pushed inwards against the spring, 3 to 5 millimetres of movement at the outer edge of the tyre is usually OK, but I've found them closer to 25mm in cases of serious neglect or dodgy MOT status.

Also worth watching for 'fore and aft' movement of the track rods where they emerge from the rack, although that would affect the steering on both right hand and left hand corners, whereas I'd guess that the problem on your car is more likely to be on the offside.
That's based on the wheel which has less load having more tendency to start 'shimmying', however that's just another one of my crackpot theories.

ken

Thanks for the advice chaps !

I'll get it up in the air tomorrow and shoogle everything around.

The MOT garage is a traditional old time place, he knows his old cars, (in fact he did a kingpin on a 2CV of mine 25yrs ago....). His MOTs are straight as they come, I'd have thought he would have picked up a worn kingpin.

I do have a slightly noisy wheel bearing on the front.....could it be contributing?

Cheers
Gerry

OK, had the car up in the air today......No play in track rod ends, no play in the kingpins....

I did notice some tiny movement in the offside wheel, not present on the nearside.... I think its in the hub. The bearing is noisy and does need doing...I took the car out again and found a long fast right hander, the shudder is still there so it wasn't just a dodgy road surface I greased everything while I was there

Would a bad bearing cause the shudder?

I also found a split gaiter on the sliding joint....on the other side of course...

I'd better get it done sooner rather than later.....

Could be the bearing giving excess play - the movement you are getting is likely to be kingpin though.

I know you will have thought of this but have you tried swapping the wheels from n/s to o/s and then driven it? Could be poor balancing if it switches to the other side....

I don't see a reason why play in the bearing would be different to play in taking pin or steering?

Well, I figured I'd SEE movement in either the track rod end or kingpin, and after a lot of rocking, pulling, pushing I still didn't see anything....I could feel a tiny bit of movement while rocking and holding wheel at 12/6 and 9/3, thats why I thought bearing.....

Should I see movement in a worn kingpin?

What I mean is, I can't see why play in a wheel bearing would feel different to play in a kingpin or steering components WHEN DRIVING. If the wheel is flapping about like a prick in a shirtsleeve because of the failing of any one of those components, it's likely to have the same effect felt through the steering wheel. I didn't mean when jacked up and wobbling the wheel by hand.