Shimmy 1973 Thing

captken · Post by **captken** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 2:55 pm

Hello, I have a 73 Thing with 60,000 miles. I have replaced tie rods, damper, and had the front end aligned, new tires. I still have a shimmy. It got better after all of that but still exist. the car is totally stock. It happens about 40mph and above. Anyone have any suggestions???

Post by **Marc** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:15 pm

At that mileage I wouldn't expect there to be any problem with the balljoints or control arm bushings/bearings. Gut feeling is it has to be in the tires. I assume the new tires were spin-balanced. Once in a while a radial or bias-belted tire gets built with a skewed belt - it can't be detected except by X-ray, but the tire tries to track with it which makes it take a squiggly path down the road. Have you already tried swapping the tires F<->R or borrowing some known-good ones?

MNAirHead · Post by **MNAirHead** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 7:12 pm

At this age if the tires are OK... I'd move onto the synthetic parts (rubber/urethane etc)

NOTE--- on a VW it's close to impossible to REALLY know how many miles are on it --- the odometer swap takes about 10 minutes.

T.

MASSIVETYPEI · Post by **MASSIVETYPEI** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 1:17 pm

Jack it up and check play in the ball joints. I had the problem. Dose it smooth out around 50-55?

Kubelmann · Post by **Kubelmann** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:12 pm

Sorry Guys, In this case you are all wrong. I would bet good money that this is caused by a bent wheel. Been there done that. Rotate tires front to back and if the wobble goes away, you have your issue. The speed at which it occurs is a dead give away. I just went through this issue on a car last Fall. You can jack up one tire at a tim adn do a run out test to find a bent wheel.. K-mann