Shake of death?

[superpowerdave]

On my Series III I have developed a shimmy on the front end, so bad I can look down the wing and see the driver side (RHD truck) wing moving as I am driving down the road.

Starts around 30 miles per hour. When it happens the gas pedal also starts jumping up and down until I slow her down.

I've chedk the drive shaft and it's fine, the engine mounts appear to be good, didn't feel any play in the steering or track rods ... not sure where to look next.

Any ideas? Thanks guys-

Important specs: 1973 RHD, 70K on the odometer.

 

[LRNationals]

does it have free wheeling hubs? ... the railko bushes or top pin is splash lubricated. most people leave the hubs out and no lubrication gets to the top bushing. jack up front end to get the tyre into the air. grab a hold of the top and bottom of the tyre and se if there is movement. ....

 

[superpowerdave]

No free wheeling hubs. I had the truck up last week and didn't feel any play, lateral or horizontal, but I didn't take a hard look at the swivel balls or pins. I had planned on changing fluids in the swivel balls tomorrow or the next day anyway so I'll take another look.

 

[Steve Rupp]

An out of balance wheel and a worn out railco bush would definitely cause a shake like that. Does the steering wheel also wobble when this happens?

 

[superpowerdave]

Steering wobbles as well, yes. After running out and looking at the tires (32 inch that were on the truck when I bought it) I didn't see any weights at all, on any of them! I haven't had any issue with the tires so far though and I've owned the truck about a year and about a thousand miles or so.

As far as the Railco bush, when I remove them to inspect will it be obvious if it's worn and needs replacing or should I go ahead and replace them anyway if I remove them?

Thanks-

 

[LRNationals]

if the metal shims are there than a you can remove some of the shims to gain back a little. the bush is tapered fit. could also check steering box.

 

[superpowerdave]

Thanks for all the responses ... turned out to be the tie rod was loose on the passenger side of the truck. I guess it was loose by about a quarter of an inch and the ball joint was allowed to travel up and down inside the rod. Slapped some lock-tite on and buttoned her up and now she tracks just great, although still running a little rich, but that's totally unrelated.

 

[Ron]

Zenith warp?

Ron

 

[superpowerdave]

You know Ron, I really hadn't had any time to give to it just yet, was more concerned with the violent shake but now that's gone I'll move on to my fuel/air issue.

Might be a warp on the Zenith. I have noticed lately that I'm needing to use the choke for longer than I used to, even when it's decent outside. And even then sometimes when I pull to a stop the engine will feel like she's about to stall on me and then idle right up like normal.

Out of curiosity what's a standard idle for a 2.25 unleaded non-modified engine? I sit right around 1000 rpm.

 

[Brett E. Snyder]

Standard idle is 500 - 550 rpm for 2.25.