Periodic wobble???? Need opinions please.

chinacat · Post by **chinacat** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 7:41 am

I'm experiencing a periodic "wobble" in my '73 when I drive it between 50mph and 60mph on the highway. Trying to diagnose it is beginning to drive me nuts, since I've had so much stuff replaced and restored in my front end.

Here's the symptoms: At lower speeds, she's steady as a rock. When I get her on the highway and bring the speed up to between 50-60, I start to experience a "periodic wobble". In other words, the wobble comes and goes in waves. She'll be moving along nice and steady, then I'll start to feel a slight shake, which intensifies and then subsides and dissapears. Each of these "wobbly waves" lasts for maybe 10-15 seconds, then all is steady for a couple of minutes, until it happens again. When it's wobbling, my steering wheel rotates back and forth about half an inch in either direction.

Now, this is bugging me, because I've had a lot of work done on my front end over the past year or so - of course this isn't to say that something wasn't done correctly, or a part hasn't worn out prematurely. The front axle beam is brand new, and I just replaced the steering knuckles, bearings, ball joints, brake backing plates, rotors, misc internal brake parts and hoses, etc. Looking under there, nothing looks obviously worn out or anything. The front end was just aligned, too (though it was doing this before the alignment as well). The tires are also brand new (less than 400 miles on them), and the wheels were all balanced when the new tires were put on.

I know that shimmies and shakes are common VW problems, so I'm wondering if anyone has run into this before? Do the symptoms sound familiar? What did you do to diagnose and fix it?

All advice is kindly appreciated.

Iltis74 · Post by **Iltis74** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 12:08 pm

Sounds very similar to how mine was acting, only you're getting up to higher speeds. I suspected balljoints and one was not in the best of shape so I had them all replaced and it changed nothing. The local shop said my next move should be the steering dampner, and that fixed it all.

Bob Ingman · Post by **Bob Ingman** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 2:35 pm

Guys a wobble at certain speeds is indicative of wheel balance. A wobble after a bump is indicative of dampener wear. Good luck. Bob Ingman

Capn Skully · Post by **Capn Skully** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 11:28 am

My '74 does the same thing. I found a tie rod end that is about to break. You don't want that to happen while driving. You may have control of one wheel but the other wheel will do what ever it want to.

When I repair it I'll post some photos on my website:

http://volkswagen/conductorx.com

Post by **Marc** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 12:00 pm

Bob Ingman wrote:Guys a wobble at certain speeds is indicative of wheel balance. A wobble after a bump is indicative of dampener wear. Good luck. Bob Ingman

And sometimes even a "perfectly-balanced" wheel can be the cause if the rim has excessive runout or it the belt inside the tire is skewed - the latter problem is impossible to detect without X-ray vision, but if tire rotation makes a difference it's a pretty strong clue. Curing a problem like this with a steering damper still leaves at least one tierod end that's overworked and'll wear out faster - you'll know if it's truly fixed when you can drive with NO damper and the wobble is gone.