Steering Wobble

[nakos]

Hi,

I know this topic has been addressed before and hope it can be further looked at. I have had two patrols display the same problem both at approx. 100 000 km. Both showed severe wobble in the steering once past 60km/h and up to 90km/h. As usual first checked wheel balancing and after small correction there was some improvement, but there still remains a slight wobble that is felt directly in the steering.
The posted recommendation to remove some of the shims or simply reduce them is a concern to me. I have heard that this can cause the entire hub to crack. Am I correct that if reducing shims fixes the problem the issue at hand is that the actual swivel bearings are worn out; at 100 000km ?! This is assuming that wheel bearings are still good at 100 000km. The only issue I have not addressed are the panrod bushes. They appear fine but I have often been caught out thinking bushes are good when in fact they needed replacing. Any advice is most welcome.

Many thanks,

[AndriesS]

The Patrols preload (ease of turning) on the kingpin bearings are very light, the Cruiser is nearly double that. You can start by measuring your actual pre load as per the manual and most likely it will be less, thus removing some of the shims, start with the thinist and retry. I did not take out all my shims but actually repalced them with thinner ones .

As for teh balance, what methid did they use, not all shops are the same and my wobble was related to balancing and wheel out of roundness rather than worn suspension

[Peter Connan]

My two cents:

I have a serious problem with just removing shims without doing fairly extensive checks and measurements first. Doing this wrong can certainly crack the hubs.

This is treating a symptom, rather than a problem. Any such problem will have a number of other results as well, not just steering wobble.

Yes, if the king-pin bearings are worn, or were incorrectly fitted, then that could be the cause. But so could play on the wheel bearings, play in the bushes of the lower control arms, play in the panhard rod bushes, or play in any part of the steering mechanism. Also, bent rims, unbalanced wheels and possibly even worn bushes in the rear suspension...

To check the panhard rod bushes, use the biggest screwdriver you can find, and try to lever the joints around. Pretty much any movement is probably too much. The same holds true for all the other bushes in the suspension.

[AndriesS]

Piet I do agree that you can;t just remove shims and hope it works. And it is a schlep to do properly as you need to split 2 ball joints on the one side and one on the other. All I can say is that mine requried very little force to turn. I had the same amount of shims on both sides. i can't recall exactly how much though. I ended getting a set of shims half the size of the set I removed , I think it was .25mm and replaced with .125mm Any case I first took 0.3 valemoid and made a set and checked how the pre load change. Also keep in mind one needs remove equal shims from top to bottom.

With a big scredriver you will see some movement.

BUT
After I checked and adjusting my wheel bearings, changing the bushes, changing the pre load I still had a bit of a wobble. After 3 balancing shops I finally got a chance to go to my first choice shop and they fixed the problem. The highs on the tires were fitted to the high on the rim causing some of my problems. Thus for all battling with wobbles first point of call is make sure your wheels are balanced properly, check that they run flat when it's spun up and make sure they use the finger adaptor . This worked for me on standard APtrol steel wheels with 33inch tires.

[Jules]

What is the finger adaptor ? I have read thet the shops must use a honeycomb when balancing Patrol rims

Shalom

[AndriesS]

See attached pic, I can see the refrence to honeycomb from the plate with all the holes

[Jules]

Nope not the holes type the shape of the cone must me honeycomb shape

shalom

[Michael]

So just adding to this thread about the dreaded DEATH WOBBLE

Took my Patrol to Autowiel yesterday because my steering wheel was shaking quite a bit on 80km/h which I thought was just wheel balancing........it wasnt.
After all wheels were balanced the shake was still there, so I stumbled upon this guy on Youtube and he managed to solve his by removing the shims on his king pin bearings.

Now I know its very risky just removing the shims, but I think if you do it very carefully and make sure its not to tight you will not damage anything. Its obvious that after 200,000km things wear a bit and the shims might not be needed any more. Like Peter said many things can cause this and removing this is not just the first thing to look at.

Anyways, so this "backyard Mechanic" went through a couple of things and I quite like his way of thinking and he is pretty funny as well. So check out his Vids as he owns a Patrol and records allot of things he does himself which might be usefull to someone.

[Oellie]

Great, thanks Michael

[ricster]

Michael, here is a bit of reading about it.....

http://www.patrol4x4.co.za/viewtopic.ph ... =30#p43227

Just make sure that if you just take the shims out that the preload is not too high!!