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Scuttle shake at 55

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Randy Harris

Randy Harris

Jedi Warrior
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I get significant cowl/scuttle shake at 55 mph in my '66 BJ8. It goes away once I've past 55. I know this has been covered before but I wasn't paying attention and can't seem to locate the thread(s) in the archive. What is this cowl shake about and can it be easily eliminated. Thanks
Randy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif
 
Hi Randy,

Here is one of the longer threads on Scuttle shake

scuttle shake

That should get you started!

Cheers,
John
 
randy harris,the 55 m.p.h you mentioned seems to be a significant number when discussing 'scuttle shake' most people say it accures at just about that same speed as did mine,in a effort to correct this problem on my 63-bj7 i stripped the suspention to the bone, front and rear replaced/rebuilt the entire front end and rear, everything all susp.components.i can best discribe my 55 m.p.h. shake as the 'whoocheekoochy' ya it was pretty bad,all the work shifted the frequency to about 72m.p.h and very much less of a shake,with no noticable jumping around when traversing pot holes or r.r. crossings,what seemed to totally erradicate the problem was when i purchased a new set of all four and the spare with very well ballanced'dayton' chrome wire wheels and new radial tires,it totaly changed the driving experiance,ive had the car up to 110 m.p.h.and the car tracked very well felt very stable and tight demonstrating the requirement of a good set of wheels and sneeks on these cars,im not suggjesting everyone needs new chrome wire wheels,just that a good clean straight set of wires and new well ballanced tires makes all the diff.in the world,and i dont recommend everyone needs to test this by driving at 110 m.p.h perhaps i wouldnt have done so if i was sober.no just kidding,that run was done on a private airport runway in penn.
 
Randy, you are not that far from Santa Cruz where the best wire wheel guy is. Just drive down and he'll fix you up while you wait or as we did, walk to the beach and have lunch. Smooth as silk. He works out of a shop as his house so we went down on a Sunday.
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif
Hey 7777, they all track very well at 110 MPH its that 55 MPH bit that gets them ah shakin.---Keoke-- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hammer.gif
 
Thanks folks for your comments.
This 55 mph scuttle shake is a relatively new phenomenon, noticed just a few months ago. The tires are just 2 years old (Yokohama A321s)have only a couple thousand miles on them and the 72 spoke SS Daytons are new too, both supplied by BBW in Santa Cruz. They were tuned, trued and balanced to the knat's ass. I suspect that my problem is something other than tire/wheel related. However, it is possible that I have recently thrown a balancing weight and it shows up at 55. Maybe what I'll do is rotate the tires first and see what that does. Cheers
Randy '66 BJ8
 
randy harris,others have mentioned here that the rear drums were often machined with an out of or off center cut,giving the outside diameter an out of ballance spin to them,im not sure your year and model was effected by the manufacturing defect,ive also read here that recutting the the outside surface has done well in correcting the shaking problem,also a bad universal and or out of ballance drive shaft might be worth looking in to.i know first hand what a drag it is to have this 55 mph shake,takes a lot of fun out of the drive,i hope you can soon solve this pain in the asscote.anthony7777 63 bj7 3000 M.K.II /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Had an old landrover did the same, was at 52mph, turned out among other things it was the steering arm on the steering box had worked loose on its splines, fixed that and changed the steering ball joints out, prob fixed
 
Well, I suffered over the years in my 65 BJ8 with the dreaded 55 mph scuttle shake and tried new wheels, tires, balancing on the car, etc. All to some effect. However, Hendrix Wire Wheels in NC balanced my rear brake drums this summer. Voila' virtually no shaking at all. I think I could use a better set of balanced tires to completely eliminate anything that is remaining - I am being extremely picky as the car drives very, very smooth now that the wheel brake drums are balanced. If the other obvious things don't work you should think about the brake drums. By the way, Hendrix said my drums really weren't all that bad compared to some that they have balanced. I hate to think how badly those cars must have ridden! Mine wasn't all that bad, just a nagging irritant. Good luck.
 
Hi chaps, I suffer the same probs on my BJ7, talked to Bill Rawles over here in Hampshire England and he recons that a good start is to balance the wheels on the car. This will overcome most out of the problems, the only drawback is that the wheels will become individual to the corner of the car and will need to be spot marked to the hubs so that they are always putback correctly.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/england.gif

Bob
 
Yes Bob, if they are that sensitive and some are, I spot mark them by putting matching chisel marks on the wheel hub and the splined hub.---Fwiw---Keoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/patriot.gif
 
keoke,why mark both?just mark the wheel hub always using drivers side front as #1 and going clockwise #2=r/f #3=r/r #4=l/r heck even a feeble minded old fool like me can remember that!all those chisel marks? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonono.gif
 
I think he means to mark the hub and wheel so the 12 o'clock on the hub lines up with the 12 o'clock on the wheel each time the wheel is put back on. Right?
that would make sence if the drums and wheels were balanced together.
 
Yep TH, You got it right and spin balancing on the car is a must for sensitive cars. However, for the rear wheels I use the Mowog sign on the brake drums and center the valve stem on it as a reference---Keoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yesnod.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
keoke,why mark both?just mark the wheel hub always using drivers side front as #1 and going clockwise #2=r/f #3=r/r #4=l/r heck even a feeble minded old fool like me can remember that!all those chisel marks? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonono.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Anthony ! are you with us now! and besides using your method I would have to try and walk all the way around the car-Keoke-- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
keoke,tahoe healey clarified your idea for me,your method will keep you from having to put to many extra miles on that wheel chair of yours goin round and round the car!!and believe me if theres any chislin to be done ill do it!not a bad idea though,its difficult around my parts to find a good place that will ballance wheels and tires on the car.i dont know why its a good thing to have done.and ive looked. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/savewave.gif Anthony!! You got it, you got it. Thanks TH, I thought I was gonna have to either draw him a picture or write him a book.---Keoke--- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif-- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Book? Like "Healey's for dummies"? I'll buy it.

[/ QUOTE ]

TH!---Keoke-- /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif
 
th,im sure keoke wants to use my picture for the front cover!!!!pending copyright agreement umm-we might be able to work somthin out!nah hes to cheap! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazyeyes.gif
 
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