I'm getting lots of vibration on the highway around 60 mph. Steering wheel and seat vibrates. I've had the front end rebuilt, right rear axle replaced cause the car was wrecked and I was told it was bent. New tires, balanced, different rims from the wreck. The vibration is still there. Any ideas?
I'm ready to take it to a shop and pay them to figure it out, but I'm afraid we will start replacing parts that are not bad, to find the problem. 72 Cutlass. It's not while braking or accelerating. It's cruising speeds on the highway.

 

Did you get an alignment?
That'll usually tell a lot.

 

Yep alignment was done when front end was done.

 

Have you checked for a bent driveshaft?

 

+1 and check the u joints too, I eliminated a similar vibration/shudder w u joint replacment besides one UJ being dry i had needle impressions in the spider both were original w the nylon retainers

 

Have not check the driveshaft or U joints. How would i check the drive shaft? Do I need to take it to a shop? What kind of shop? I guess I could replace the U joints first to see if that makes a difference.

 

You could put the car on jack stands and start by turning the tires by hand and check for out of round or sever sideways runout. Next, while still on the stands, you run the car in gear and see if the vibration shows up. That might isolate the problem to the drive line or clear the drive line. If nothing shows up you then try moving the front tires to the back one at a time to check them for balance.


BTW, inspect the wheels for excessive wheel weights. If there's a lot of weights hung on a wheel, chances are something's wrong.

 

Highwayman I'll try that this weekend. Thanks for the ideas guys. I'll start with the cheapest and go from there. I prefer to fix things myself cause them mechanics shops like to take all my money

 

Does it show up at 60 mph and get worse as your speed goes up or does it go away at higher or lower speeds?

 

If that isn't it, try switching tires + wheels, front to rear.
Should isolate it!

 

It goes up as speed goes up. I dont notice it til about 50-55 or so. Gets worse at 70.

 

Does it have a distinct rythym? I would think it would be tire related. Go back to the shop that put you new tires on and have them rechecked. You could also have a defective tire.

Alignment generally does not cause a vibration. It will cause the car to pull or wander. Unless they completely missed the castor spec. Then you would get a shimy, like the wheels on a shopping cart.

Ujoints generally show up at lower speeds but you usually don't feel it in the steering, although I would not rule it out.

A bent wheel or axle would give you a side to side motion at low speeds.

 

Its seems like it comes on strong for a few seconds then goes away for a few then comes back. My thought is the front and rear tires are out of balance but they are new and have been balanced. I was afraid I'd have to start rechecking some work that's been done.

 

Unless you have damage from the wreak that got missed, I suspect tire balance. I once bought a new set of tires and watched them being balanced from the waiting room window from across the shop. The guy was using an off the car spin balance and nailed a BIG weight on the back side. Then he nailed another weight on the front 180 degrees from the one on the back. I knew that wasn't going to work.


I took my car to a buddy that had access to an on the car spin balance and after redoing it we took a full pound of weights off the 4 wheels. One wheel required no weight at all and another less than an ounce.


Inspect the wheels. If you have a lot of weights all over the place, you probably got a bad job. Plus you're going to check out the balance when you get the car in the air anyway.


The quick check for u-joints is with the car running, hold down the brake and shift back and forth between drive and reverse. If you have a bad joint, 9 times out of 10 you'll hear a loud clank.


I forgot to say earlier, when you put the car up on stands, support the rear by the axle housing. This keeps the u-joints at a normal angle. When you run the car at an idle in drive look for tires out of round and watch the driveshaft to see if it's bent. When you speed it up you will be checking the tire balance. As long as the stands are secure you can run it up to 60 mph or more. Back off if it starts to shake!!! BTW, if you have a peg leg instead of a posi, you can do one wheel at a time. Just remember the tire speed will be double the speedometer because of the multiplying effect of the spider gears.


Another thing I thought to check. Look over the driveshaft (when it's not running) for any shiny spots. The balance weights are spot welded on and could have been knocked off from the impact of the wreak you spoke of.


One more thing. If you think there's a need to isolate between the driveshaft and the tires, you can run the car with the wheels off. Just be sure to run the lug nuts down onto the brake drums so they don't come off!!

 

Check the front wheel bearings.

 

455man: Let us know what you find out!

 

X2 I had exactly the same thing with new Uniroyals I bought for my 98. They would go out of balance at about 58mph and be ok at 64.
An easy way to find out if front or back. (old trick taught to me by a tire shop owner - only works on RWD) Rest your hand on the top of the column when the vibration starts. If you feel it through the column its the rear tires. Dont ask me how it works, but it does.

Now this is going to sound really novice, but when you had the wreck did you double check the wheels to make sure all of them were true? A bent rim can cause exactly the same issue you described.

 

Two things to consider. Go to a tire shop that does "road force" tire balancing; a much more accurate wheel balance procedure. Secondly, consider that the rear drums may be out of balance. I had my original drums run up on a tire wheel balancer and they were both way out of balance. I bought new ones and had them run up on the same balancer and they came up at "0", or perfect balance. It made a big difference in my car that had a persitent shimmy on the highway. Good luck.

 

If it comes and goes - I'll bet on a u-joint!!
Get the greaseable ones!

 

Another good idea! Do that too.

 

The car was wrecked before I bought it. It has different rims on it. I had one shop tell me my drivers rear rim was bent and the cords were coming apart on the old tire. I took it to a guy to straighten and he told me there was very little out of round and that these old rims were not very straight from the factory. He said fix the tire and it will be good. Put on a new tire and still have the problem.

I have aluminum rear drums I got from a salvage yard. I have them turned. Never heard of balancing them but I'll look into it. I could also put the old steel ones back on.

The weather seems better today so after work I'll check out all these ideas.

What do I check for with the wheel bearings? Lack of grease, obvious defects? Look for wear on the bearings?

I'll let ya know what i find.

 

On jackstands and the wheel that had the axle replaced is wobbling. I'm removing the tire and checking the drum with the nuts on to see if its the axle. Could the housing have been bent or did I get a bent axle for a replacement?

 

IMG-20120309-00006.jpg

IMG-20120309-00007.jpg

Well it's the rim. I'll have it straightened if possible and see if its gone. Cross your fingers...

 

And stay off the f'n curbs!

 

Kinda what I thought. I ended up replacing mine and the problem was solved. BTW, mine was bent by a guy who ran a red light and took out the whole left side of my 98. Funny the body shop didn't catch that. Only noticed it at speeds of 3-5mph (which I hardly ever do but I was caught in a traffic jam) or hiway speeds. Replaced the wheel (Yikes 95.00 + tax) and I was good to go.

for right now, if you have a spare tire, slap it on and go for a drive to see if you got the problem found.

 

I've had that rim for about 20 yrs. The dent is on the inside??? Maybe when they said my rim was bent I heard them wrong on which side or they told me wrong. I dont have a good spare to test out. I'll check back in a few days when I get it fixed.

 

I'm glad to see you're starting to find something and get the problem figured out. Keep us posted.

 

The dent could be on the outside, but the force of impact could easily have stressed the metal and warped it all the way through to the inside.

 

Well I got the wheel straightened and balanced. It's better but still got some vibrations. I'll be checking everything out this weekend. Maybe replace the front wheel bearings and U joints.

 

Shot in the dark. Has the driveshaft been out of the car? If it has, it needs to be installed with the index marks in the right spot with the rear diff. That might cause your out of balance condition too?

 

Hey,
I honestly have very little experience working on suspension. BUT maybe you should check out these videos of a guy who had a similar problem. In the end it turned out to be a loose bolt! I like this guy's videos.

Good luck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jopKEm-Jm7E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9QtD...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DulgdbWXmIs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91voRw7G1bQ

 

Actually I changed the blown TH350 to a spare TH400 when I got the car running. I took the driveshaft out of my other car because of the length difference. What are the index marks?

Thanks Richard I'll check out those videos tonight.

 

Have a look at section 4 page 100 of the 72 Assembly manual (link provided - it will be page 14/31 in the .pdf). http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/membe...Sect_2_-_5.pdf No guarantee this is the solution, but it might help. Not hard to take out and reposition if necessary. I'd use a wire wheel to find the index mark instead of a grinder or sandpaper.

 

So I check for index marks. Dont see any. Check the drive shaft again. It looks fine to me. While on jackstands I check the wheels again. Passenger side seems wobbly and the drivers side seems fine. So I rotate the back two tires. Same side is wobbly. This is the same side that had the bent axle replaced. Chances that they put another bent axle in? Housing bent? I'll call the shop that replaced the axle tomorrow. This is starting to give me a headache.

 

From your description, it sounds a lot like the bent axle was NOT replaced. Either that or there's damage to the carrier. It should all have been fixed under the original repair order/estimate.

 

Yep.

To paraphrase Allan, There's something rotten in the State of Denmark.

- Eric

 

Not sure you've looked into it yet... I just fixed a nasty vibration/noise that was a roasted wheel bearing on my 55. Sometimes it is the easy thing...

 

A little update. The shop was questioning me since it had been almost 6 months since they fixed the axle. I let them know the car sat in a body shop for 3 months over the winter. So they get another axle and put it in. They called me to let me know that it was done and that this axle was bent too. The guy said he realizes it's not my fault and its not his fault but he's losing money on my car. He's ordered another axle. Obviously he is using salvage yard axles because of the price of a new one. He said he's going to work with me though.
I still plan on checking the U joints and wheel bearings when the axle issue is fixed.

 

They were questioning you since they fixed??? the axle? You are in the right here. Chances of 2 axles in a row bent? I don't think that's too likely. They should be checking for some damage to the carrier too.

 

A bent housing won't affect the axle, one way or the other, unless it's a loose tube!
Bearing follows the housing end - wherever it is!