Deadly 80 series front wheel shake...... please help

[nic80]

Hi,

I have a 97 80 series with a 5" lift, 35" tyres.

Driving along and hitting bumps in the road creates an uncontrollable front wheel shake. I have Just replace the panhard bushes and has not made any difference. The front hub nuts are thight and the wheel bearing have been done within 5000km's ago.

Any ideas to what could be going on?

Please Help.........

[Ice]

the 5 inch lift ???

try swapping your tyres around ?

[Wozza244]

When was the last time ya had a balance?

Dirt/mud crust on inside of rims..

5" lift will create excessive play in the front end if not correctly fitted.

[nic80]

The lift has been in the car now for 4 yrs and I have never had this problem before.
The inside of the rims are clean and have no build up in there.
The wheels were balanced about 3 months ago.

A mate of mine was behind me the last time the wheels went haywire and he said it looked like the wheels were going to fall off..... it seems to alternate sides when it happens.

[Wozza244]

Oh dear. Im out of suggestions i will ask some mates tomorrow, be sure to post the cause if you find it though.

[crankycruiser]

can be any of these:

panhard bushes.. swivel hub bearings, wheel bearings, tie rods, wheel balance.

how old are your tyres? maybe they are about stuffed..?

[dutch mafia]

check the lower and uper king pins on the swivel hub check if the bolts are tight

[nic80]

the tyres are about 4 yrs old and have about 60% tread

[crankycruiser]

the tyres are about 4 yrs old and have about 60% tread

might be worth putting the rears on the front, or borrowing a mates tyres just to eliminate that

[WACKO]

A mate of mine was behind me the LAST TIME the wheels went haywire and he said it looked like the wheels were going to fall off..... it seems to alternate sides when it happens.

so its an intermitant thing? how often does it happen?

[-Scott-]

Out of curiosity, do you have any caster correction?

My guess is something is worn in the steering - one of the joints has some play.

[Hamo]

my 2 cents cracked chassie where the steering box mounts

could be any of the above so check this out as it may be some help

http://www.offroad80s.com/stupid-vibrat ... t3587.html

you might have to join to read

[V8Patrol]

uncontrollable front wheel shake....

Some light reading for you.....

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic.php?t=20810
http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic.php?t=15958
http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic.php?t=12324
http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic.php?t=6610
http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic.php?t=5573


As others have suggested...

Kingpin bearings
tierod ends
steering box adjustment
tyre rotation

The likely culprit lies within one of them..... Usually a full set of replacement parts will see the shudder dissapear and you'll get another 4 years of trouble free driving.

something has simply worn to a point thats now allowing it to happen.
Not uncommon with big lifts and big tyre combos
Kingy

[beinthemud]

My mates Patrol did this ,Was his steering dampner ,It looked ok but was old so we replaced it never happened again, 3inch lift and 33inch tyres.
He would hit a pot hole and have to stop the car because of the wheels shaking then it would be fine till next time

[krooza]

My mates Patrol did this ,Was his steering dampner ,It looked ok but was old so we replaced it never happened again, 3inch lift and 33inch tyres.
He would hit a pot hole and have to stop the car because of the wheels shaking then it would be fine till next time

This would be my bet, My cruiser did the same thing, plus worn out front shocks!

cheers, Scott

[coxy321]

I'm going to just throw this out there, but steering dampers are not the cure/fix for shimmy problems. These problems are 98% of the time caused by worn components, or poor castor angles. Steering dampers are there to make your drive more comfortable and resist shock load to the steering components - not fix poor steering goemetry.

My 2c.

Peace out.

[43som]

had this on my 75ser ute. Ended up being a very badly warn tie rod end.
didn't seem like much play, but on the road it dam well near caused an accident. check all ties rod ends and ball joints etc.

[ludacris]

Might be worn leading arm bushes.

Cris

[Ruffy]

I'm going to just throw this out there, but steering dampers are not the cure/fix for shimmy problems. These problems are 98% of the time caused by worn components, or poor castor angles. Steering dampers are there to make your drive more comfortable and resist shock load to the steering components - not fix poor steering goemetry.

My 2c.

Peace out.

Sheesh... I'm so glad that someone else recognises this... Tough dog RTC's wouldn't even leave the shelves if most "Experts" recognised this and attended to the issues rather than maskiing them.
In saying that, check you steering dampner as it can cause discomfort if it's worn

[beinthemud]

I'm going to just throw this out there, but steering dampers are not the cure/fix for shimmy problems. These problems are 98% of the time caused by worn components, or poor castor angles. Steering dampers are there to make your drive more comfortable and resist shock load to the steering components - not fix poor steering goemetry.

My 2c.

Peace out.

Sheesh... I'm so glad that someone else recognises this... Tough dog RTC's wouldn't even leave the shelves if most "Experts" recognised this and attended to the issues rather than maskiing them.
In saying that, check you steering dampner as it can cause discomfort if it's worn

Well then owning a Patrol can make you special ,Being he was in the 2% of people who have a wobble no one else can find has everything else replaced changed the steering dampner never for it to happen again

[coxy321]

I'm going to just throw this out there, but steering dampers are not the cure/fix for shimmy problems. These problems are 98% of the time caused by worn components, or poor castor angles. Steering dampers are there to make your drive more comfortable and resist shock load to the steering components - not fix poor steering goemetry.

My 2c.

Peace out.

Sheesh... I'm so glad that someone else recognises this... Tough dog RTC's wouldn't even leave the shelves if most "Experts" recognised this and attended to the issues rather than maskiing them.
In saying that, check you steering dampner as it can cause discomfort if it's worn

Well then owning a Patrol can make you special ,Being he was in the 2% of people who have a wobble no one else can find has everything else replaced changed the steering dampner never for it to happen again

You have misquoted me. That was "These problems are 98% of the time caused by worn components, or poor castor angles", not "2% of Nissan Patrols get wheel shimmy". If you are after that sort of data, you need to PM "David123" and request the studies he did recently on the relationship between relative humidity and Patrol wheel shimmy.

[RIZZO]

Hi,

I have a 97 80 series with a 5" lift, 35" tyres.

Driving along and hitting bumps in the road creates an uncontrollable front wheel shake. I have Just replace the panhard bushes and has not made any difference. The front hub nuts are thight and the wheel bearing have been done within 5000km's ago.

Any ideas to what could be going on?

Please Help.........

Hi try taking the shims or metal washers or whatever you like to call them out of the top and bottom of the king pins,5min job, It worked on my patrol as there bad for it as well, and all my mates run without them, i dont believe its steering dampner as i tried this, done absolutely nothing,try them king pin shims, doesnt take long, if they dont make any difference simply throw them back in

[nic80]

Thanks for all your feedback guys.

I went and bought a new EFS extreme dampener and panhard rod bushes and installed them tonight. (The old dampener seemed to be fine, it was quite hard to compress in and pull out again. After Reading some of the previous posts, it could have well been the problem).

The old panhard bushes I installed were poly bushes. (installed Genuine Toyota this time) They looked like brand new when they came out, But not to say they were buggered too.

I pulled the king pins out and checked the bearings and the seem to be fine. I double checked the hub nuts and locking nuts and they are tight.

I pulled the front shocks out and they appear to be in good condition aswell. I checked this with a brand new pair that my mate has for his Patrol and they seemed to be nearly identical in the push pull test again.

After quite a subtle test drive, (Shitting my pants that I didnt wat to cause an accident) the Truck seems to drive reasonable again.

I ran a spanner over all components in the front end trying to eliminate any further possibilities, and everything was quite tight.

I'm taking the truck into the mechanics tomorrow just to be sure.

Fingers crossed!!!!

[rosscotd105wa]

Hey Nic,

Glad you got it sorted.

New panhard bushes fixed my shimmy , after replacing wheel/kingpin bearings, controls arm bushes and tie rod ends. Adjustable panhards were only 7 months old so didn't think they would have been the issue

Ross.

[nic80]

I spoke to the Mechanic today and after a compete strip down of the front diff he failed find anything wrong....

go figure........

[chunks]

The poly panahrd bushes would have been your problem. They may not look worn but they elongate slighty on the internal bore and allow movement.

[bazzle]

Ive only ever found poly bushes good for about a week or so in panhards esp front.
Wrap your hand around the ring mount and get someone to rock 4bee side to side. Any play will be fel thru your hand and need fixing.
On Patrols going back to rubber always fixed this issue.

Bazzle

[g35me]

Panhard bushes will be stuffed. They make look ok but can still be worthless.

[nerida67]

just a thought
your belts in your tyres arent starting to seperate at all are they
our patrol got a shudder all of a sudden,it was chrissy time tyres shops wernt open ,drove 10k up the road one day and BANG she let go bitta rear quarter panel damage/lights ect ect
the left rear tyre belt had let go
just a thought

[wholehog]

A 5" lift huh...did you get your wheel align figures checked again... ie..castor.. it will be way negative.

mate, the trucks getting older and looser..and thanks to that 5" lift also..

You will need to fit a 5 degree castor kit/plate to the front arms....castor correction bushes will not correct this amount of negative induced castor due to your 5" lift.



or use drop boxes (not many successful ones for Landcruiser) for the rear bush of the front control arms or new cast control arms for your 5" lift.

https://www.suspensionstuff.com.au/shop ... 212d2b0b83



You can't whack in 5" lift springs and gain a lift for no pain...hows the rest of the rig..??.. need a drop pitman arm for the steer box?