GQ-ROD

Getting a very bad vibration at the steering wheel when driving, it starts at 45 mph and stays there until 70 mph. Even the dash shakes.

I will be taking it into a vette mechanic to have the alignment checked, but wanted your thoughts on what to expect.

The upper and lower bushings look stock, the upper still has rivets, not bolts. No play in them with hands at 9 and 3 rocking the tire in the air.

Control arm bushings also look like stock rubber.

Replaced the rack and pinion in July so not sure if the inner tie rods would be at fault here. ( i assume these were replaced when the rack was rebuilt ? )

Tires are properly balanced but showing excessive wear on the inside part close to the edge. Passenger side worse than the driver side.

The outer tie rods had some play in them that i remember when i installed the rack, think they should be more rigid?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

s carter

Tires age? you did say a bit worn on the edges, now have you tried giving the tires a spin and look for belt shift (the treads sliding side to side) or in some cases a Egg shaped deformity that can be seen as well as felt in some cases with the hand.

The alignment is a given that is coming soon hopefully with some new tires?

GQ-ROD

Thanks for the reply, i recently bought new tires for the rear and rotated them to the front to see if it was the tires, no dice the vibration is still there.

I'm sure i have to replace the other tires with the bad wear. I did not check the worn tires for the egg shape deformity as yet.

I want to replace any needed parts but wanted to get an idea of how to test each for need of replacement.

s carter

Definitely exhaust all possible mechanical issues before the tires,

GQ-ROD

Will do thank you !

PatternDayTrader

90% of all vibrations can be traced back to tires.

If the inside edges are scalped then you can bet they are not actually round tires anymore. This is not the same thing as being out of balance.

Inspect the front end components such as tie rod ends and replace as necessary. Then have the front end properly aligned. No negative camber on a street car. Tell the alignment guy that.

GQ-ROD

Thank you, i'll let the alignment shop know. I'll look at the outer tie rods and probably replace them once i determine if they are bad.

ClaudioC4

My 85 had shake but it was introduced when it hit a pot hole. Replacing the tie rods and lower ball joints fixed that. There was no play in the tire but they were very loose when I removed them.

GQ-ROD

Thank you i'll take a look at the ball joints as well as the outer tie rods!

GQ-ROD

Ok, rotated the tires putting the new bf goodrich on and moved the mirada gt tire to the passenger side and the vibration is gone.

So it's the front tire that was on the drivers side.

Of course it needs an alignment, but narrowed it down to one tire. May need balancing but it's old and i'm replacing the miradas with bf goodrich.

I did all the tests to see which parts of the suspension may need attention, from what i could tell nothing made any strange clicks or noises, no excessive movement from the ball joints or outer tie rods.

I did notice slight side to side movement of the rack itself, so i may have to upgrade the bushings to poly.

Thanks all for your help!