I bought rally wheels and red line radials as a set. I have been getting vibration at a given speed. First it was 60,had tires rebalanced and now its 45. I think one or more tires is out of round? Have them shaved? I have also found that this combo of wheel and lug nut does not center itself well when tighteneing. I have to be really careful to get nuts centered in the holes. I wonder if a harder nut would center itself better?

As always, thanks!

 

Are they GM rally wheels or aftermarket? The aftermarket ones can be a real pain as they are sometimes out of round, sometimes hole is not centered in wheel, or out side to side. Been down that road and it is no fun! The new Hunter wheel balance machines can help to a degree, sometimes just spinning the tire 90 or 180 degrees on the rim will solve the problem. Just food for thought. Whoever balanced your wheels should have been able to tell you if they are out of round!

 

If they are older cokers you won’t be the first person never to get them balanced

 

I would recommend having the tires balanced on a Hunter radial force balancer to see what's going on. Also rally wheels locate to the car on the center hole not the lug nuts.

 

If actually out of round, from my experience it’s hard to find shaving equipment and someone with experience to operate it anymore. I don't believe we have any more of them in Arkansas now. But if you know of someone who can do it then other than putting up with some thread noise until the scalloped surface wears in, it will do the trick.

 

I'm having vibration issues at about 30-35mph. I can feel it in the steering wheel and I think it's coming from the front driver's side. It wasn't doing it after I changed the brakes and drove it for a couple hours. It just started it right before my daughter's wedding. They were able to drive it but her husband noticed it too. Now the power steering cylinder and control valve are both leaking terribly bad. Not sure if that's my issue or not. Have been gone a good bit and haven't had time to look at it.

Dex

 

You might swap tires front to rear, one side at a time. If the vibration leaves the steering wheel in one of the changes, you will have found your problem tire. That is if it is a tire.

 

Thanks Dan! That's a good idea.

Dex

 

Finally had time to chase down the source of my vibration. It turns out that the two bolts that hold the front spindle/knuckle on were loose. Don't know why, I tightened them and took the car for a drive, no more vibration. Now to fix the power steering control valve and cylinder. Rebuilt both several years back and now they are both leaking everywhere. If it's not one thing it's another.

Dex.

 

Here is an update on driveline viration. The car was shaking at 55 but then smooth up 90. I had the tires rebalanced multiple times including forc balacing with the hunter machine. Some of the tires were clearly out of round and Jeggs surprised me by replacing them without a hassle, but the problem remained. Through some amazing good luck I found out about a local guy who also had a 67 driver. He was kind enough to let me swich tires and try his. No difference! So after hundreds spent on balancing, I could finally eliminate the tires.

Next I did something that sounded really scary, but turned out to be very tame. I put the back wheels on stands and had my wife run it up to 55 and the whole car was shaking, but it seemed the right rear was worst. I took off the tires from the rear and replaced a couple lug nuts to hold the rotors and repeated the run up. The right rear wheel was moving in and out. The movent of the caliper was most obvious. The rotors are new so it wasn't the rotors.

My next step was to remove the half shaft on that side again. I had already just replaced the ujoints. Looking at it I could convince myself that the yoke was not centered on the shaft, even though the ujoints are in place with the clips fully inserted.. I have taken it to the local drive shaft shop (who balanced the driveshft)and asked him to put it on his machine. I want to see if it runs true. I will have an answer tomorrow, but I bet the yoke is slightly tweaked from some hard driving in the car's past. Will give an update again when i know. Thanks again to all of you for your input, and especiallyy to Charlie who was nice enough to swap tires with a guy he never met!

 

So, was the vibration there before the new tires or did i misread the first post?

If it is the half shaft, i would do the other side and the drive line while you're at it...

 

The car was not drivable when I bought it, and the super fat tires were ancient, and not compatible with new glass. So driving began with the new tires. Already did other side, but this one seemed ok except for the ujoints which I replaced.

 

When you replaced the outside U joints did you use a backing plate when the joint was pressed? If the mount was bent, you will get a vibration. Sometimes the U joint has to be centered on the half shaft and or the outer mount. I used to hit them with a soft hammer where the C-clips mount to get them to center up. Jerry