280z Steering Wheel Vibration

[madkaw]

Well this is a timely thread . Just had a customers car come back for an electric power steering install . Drove it 30 miles on the highway and the wheel shake was terrible. I think I replaced most of the suspension parts up front . I still have things to check , but it has the original steelies with newer 14” tires . My money is the wheels and tires . I’m going to swap the wheels on my car to his and see how that goes and go from there 

[Ownallday]

41 minutes ago, madkaw said:

Well this is a timely thread . Just had a customers car come back for an electric power steering install . Drove it 30 miles on the highway and the wheel shake was terrible. I think I replaced most of the suspension parts up front . I still have things to check , but it has the original steelies with newer 14” tires . My money is the wheels and tires . I’m going to swap the wheels on my car to his and see how that goes and go from there 

Seems like a lot of people have this problem with these cars yet there are those who can't find a solution and others that have completely different fixes. Let us know please what you find.

[Blitzed]

Also wondering if the type of bushing replacements adds to the overall (what if?) with larger wheels and tires. I went all new rubber bushing with stock suspension components as opposed to Polly.

check the center hub opening on your aftermarket wheels. Make sure your wheel is seating flush on the hub plate. The stock hub has a 1/8" lip at the lug mount plate. you may have to grind the inside edge of the hub wheel opening to clear the lip on the stock hub for a flush wheel to hub mount.  

[chaseincats]

UPDATE: I may be onto something here.

I pulled one lug with the car on the ground (flat with washer style) and noticed even though the zx wheels are not acorn style, they were NOT keeping the hub stud centered in the wheel so even though the wheels/tires are balanced, they are not centered on the hub overall probably causing the shake.

Thinking back, I tried my friends new wheels and tires with his acorn nuts years ago with no shake but tried my other friend's wheels a few weeks ago with my lugs and got a shake.

I will get acorn style nuts within the next few weeks and see what happens, but I think we may be onto something here.

[kully 560]

it definitely looks not centered!!! glad you might be on to a cure.

[chaseincats]

UPDATE: for all those having issues, give this test a shot: jack up a wheel and spin it - you may also have my issue which is the lugs not in the right way/wrong lugs/bad lug holes/out of round tires/etc because you can see in the below the video the tire not spinning uniformly.  I did this for all 4 tires and swapped the best up front which helped my wobble by 80%.

Going to try new lugs in a few weeks after travel though too

video: https://youtube.com/shorts/OwrFAXh1hfY

Edited April 1, 2023 by chaseincats

[Ownallday]

18 hours ago, chaseincats said:

UPDATE: for all those having issues, give this test a shot: jack up a wheel and spin it - you may also have my issue which is the lugs not in the right way/wrong lugs/bad lug holes/out of round tires/etc because you can see in the below the video the tire not spinning uniformly.  I did this for all 4 tires and swapped the best up front which helped my wobble by 80%.

Going to try new lugs in a few weeks after travel though too

video: https://youtube.com/shorts/OwrFAXh1hfY

Thank you for the response, I will look at my enkei wheels and see if I can find a similar issues. May just end up swapping with a friend see what changes in the coming month.

[madkaw]

Took the tires to get balanced . They said 3 of 4 wheels were not running true - bent .

 

[Blitzed]

Hi All,

Done everything I can, shimmy is still there at 55mph+ . Had wheels and tire counter balanced and now have weights on the inside and outside dia of the wheel, not good.

Suggestion was replace the tires with a softer compound.

Currently running 205 60 R15  BFGoodrich  Advantage T/A Sports.

For those who's shimmy went away with new tires, what brand and model did you go with? Don't need the size, just the tire brand and model. 

Sucks to waste the dollars on a new set of shoe's after only 700 miles. 

Thanks for the info. 

[Yarb]

If it’s shimmying at 55 IMO tires are not your problem. Could be wheel bearings,rim, that’s not true. It’s easy to go down a rabbit hole chasing this.

[Yarb]

I run the exact tires and have no issues and they are very smooth and quiet.

[Zed Head]

On 3/26/2023 at 5:32 PM, Blitzed said:

My 73 240Z with the entire front and rear suspension replaced all new rubber bushings, new tie rods, new wheel bearings ,ball joints, new shocks and springs, new polly bushing on the rack and steering coupler, Konig Rewinds 15 x 7 and new BF Goodrich TA 205/60/15. Rebalanced and re-aligned, twice.

You could have a bent hub flange or axle.  It happens.  Setting up a crude runout measuring device would tell you.  Jack up a wheel, place a block some kind next to, put a stick on top and place the end close to the tire and/or the rim.  Spin the tire and watch the gap between the stick and the wheel.  Do the sides and the tread.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Zed Head