vibbbrattion

[69tr]

We just finished our first outing in my TR. It was only about 350 miles round trip, but it was great motoring around the hills of SW Virginia.
This is the first time I have ventured very far from the stable and I was a little nervous about how the car would perform. I checked it out, changed all the fluids, etc. but you can never be sure about a new old car.
The car did well. I was very pleased with its performance. It got a few looks too.
The only problem I had was that it started to vibrate at about 65 mph. I had to drive a few miles on the interstate to make a connection to another mountain road. The vibration did not occur every time and seemed worse on the interstate. I had the front end aligned and tires balanced before I started. Everything in the front end seems tight. (I noticed the vibration in the steering wheel) What am I missing?
thanks, Pete

 

[Mickey Richaud]

Glad your trip went well. It's always "iffy" on the first long ride.

Try swapping the tires, front to rear, and see if that makes a difference. Even though they were balanced, one could still be off a bit. Or, you may have some tread separation. I'd do one side at a time, in order to identify the bad one.

Good luck!

Mickey

 

[hondo402000]

do you have wire wheels?

 

[martx-5]

I agree, this sounds like a wheel balance problem. Bring it back to where you had the balancing done and have them check the balance again, this time have them tighten the specs. If that doesn't work, find a place that has a Hunter 9700 machine. That machine can balance to very tight specs and will also detect out of round or bent rim problems.

 

[MDCanaday]

How old are your tires??Steel radials get old just sitting still,mileage makes no difference. If they are ten yrs old junk em or suffer, the belts can shift and make balancing impossible.....later they simply fail and tear off a wing.
MD(mad dog)

 

[Geo Hahn]

Some road surfaces can also cause vibration... sounds like you only experienced it for a short while and intermittently. OTOH...

As for balancing -- I once had 4 tires mounted and balanced (off the car). Took them home to put them on the TR and found 1 still had the old weights plus the new weights they added, 1 had the weights fall off on the trip home and 1 had the bottom end of the old valve inside the tire rattling around. Moral: don't assume a tire they 'balanced' is not the cause of vibration.

 

[69tr]

I don't know how old the tires are but they still have lots of tread. Could be the problem
I thought of something else. I think they removed the trim rings when they balanced. This could make a difference. I think I will take them off & test drive the car. I will try the other suggestions also.
Could also be the shocks?

Thanks, Pete

 

[bobh]

My brother fixed a nagging vibration in his TR250 by installing poly bushings on the front upper A arms. Haven't tried it myself. But I will. Because I have the same sort of problem.

 

[John_Mc]

Might also be a bad or sticking u-joint. I had a speed related vibration after some differential work was done on the car and it turned out to be a u-joint. I'm not sure how you would check that, though.

 

[Geo Hahn]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know how old the tires are but they still have lots of tread. Could be the problem...

[/ QUOTE ]

If you examine the sidewall there is a date of manufacture code... look for a string of data that includes 'DOT'. the penultimate pair of digits is the week of the year, the final pair of digits is the year (e.g. 2601 means made in mid-2001).

You may have to look at a couple of tires as the code may only appear on one side of the tire and only be readily visible if that side is facing out.

If they are tires from the prior millenium the year code may only be one digit... but if they are that old you may need to replace them anyway.