steering wheel wobble

[yellowbeard]

Hey guys, my steering wheel wobbles back and forth about 1 in, between 35 to 45 mph, then clears up. Does not do it on take off. any ideas? 70 opel gt. thanks Joe

[First opel 1981]

Bent rim, and/or an unbalanced wheel.

I had the wobble at about 55 and it cleared up at 60-65. My wheel on the front passenger side was horribly unbalanced.

[hrcollinsjr]

Bent rim, and/or an unbalanced wheel.

Probably your best answer right there. Since it makes the steering wheel shake, check the front wheels for the above problems. The second thing(s) I'd check would be for anything loose in the front suspension.

Harold

[First opel 1981]

Probably your best answer right there. Since it makes the steering wheel shake, check the front wheels for the above problems. The second thing(s) I'd check would be for anything loose in the front suspension.

Harold

Oh, I forgot to add....a loose wheel bearing (not as likely for a predictable/consistent wobble).

[jmbinjax]

Does it go away or reduce after the tires warm up? If so, then it is probably flat spotting from sitting. Try overinflating the tires to about 40 psi and driving for a few miles until they are warmed up then reduce to proper inflation. If this helps you might want to consider overinflating while the vehicle sits. This is more common in performance tires due to the material used in some of the belts.

[Aardvaark]

If it's a front tire with bad/slipped belt, it can do that.

Bad wheels and tires on the back of a solid axle car like the Opel are not nearly as detectable
while driving.

Sometimes it's visible by spinning the tire and observing the tread. It'll looked wavy. Also swapping, first from say the left front tire to the left rear. And then, if needed the RH side tires and driving it. You can usually find the problem tire/wheel.

[RallyBob]

On an early GT it's usually the lower a-arm bushings that are the culprit. This is the reason they changed inner sleeve ID's on the lower a-arm bushings from .710" to .745", to reduce the amount of rubber around the sleeve and lessen the slop. Urethane bushings help however.

[kwilford]

I'm with Bob on this one. Have a read of the thread
http://www.opelgt.com/forums/3a-fron...id-shimmy.html
and especially read what I wrote in post #36 regarding front shimmy.

HTH

[tekenaar]

. . . another thing is steering link [tie rod] ball joint slop . . . there should be NONE!

[yellowbeard]

the steering feels tight. I have 50's all the way around it. only does it at a certain speed. thanks Joe
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...4/100_0183.jpg

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a3...4/100_0195.jpg