Front end shimmy

[Milt Atkinson]

Since I had to replace the spindles and kingpins, got the front axle rechromed, etc. I have had a front end shimmy when hitting uneven roadway. Howard Hines and I adjusted the toe to zero degrees and it helped tremendously, but every once in a while it would start again. While out at Goodguys this weekend, I brought a steering damper that I was going to put on to address the issue, but haven’t gotten it on as of yet.

Well, at a car show yesterday, as I was cleaning the car, I noticed that the front tires, which are directional, were mounted on the wrong side of the car. In my rush to get everything back together for Goodguys I wasn’t paying attention to the tire directional arrows. Hmmm, I said to myself, could the tires mounted on the wrong side be the issue? Nah, shouldn’t make a difference, right?

This morning I swapped the tires to their proper sides, took it for a test run, and no more shimmy. I will keep an eye on it, but that could have been my issue.

[Bob Lemke]

Does the shimmy start at a very slow road speed, say 25 mph or less after hitting some bad road surface like a pothole or road undulation? Does it go away once it starts with an increase in speed?

[Bill Salser]

What type of problem did you have to cause you to change out the spindles. I have a CCR front axle and spindles so I would like to know what I might be in for down the road.

[Milt Atkinson]

I had a frozen kingpin and it required a lot of heat and a 30 ton press to get the old one out. The heat destroyed the chrome, so the axle had to be rechromed. The reason I went with new spindles and kingpins is I found the spindles on the internet that came with pre-honed bushings and fitted kingpins for about what it would cost to get just the kingpins and bushings, take everything to a front end shop to get the old bushings taken out, the new ones put in and then honed to match the new kingpins. There was nothing wrong with the old spindles ... I was just in a hurry and went with the pre-matched spindles and kingpins ... make sense?

The frozen kingpin was not a CCR issue ... it was a lack of lubrication ... my fault.

[Bill Salser]

Thanks Milt. Sorry to hear about your trouble with the front end of your car.