The dreaded speed (?) wobbles started to creep in again, I’d had them a while ago and changed the panhard rod bushes and bingo, no more wobbles. So when they came back, I was surprised but headed straight for another set of bushes. This did the job for about a week until I put the camper on the tray and headed for Tassie – they were back! Obviously not the panhards and with three weeks till we got back, I had a lot of time to contemplate them – not too many times we got over 90!
It seemed that the weight on the rear transferred weight away from the front axle and so allowed any fault to be magnified. We have airbags in the rear, so I increased the height hoping to put more weight on the front axle, this worked a bit and so did lowering the tyre pressure ( I had seen this mentioned on the forum), but it still shook b/n 76 and 85. When we got back I headed straight for the forum and figured I’d try the swivel hub bearing shims. Mine had a single shim in each spot of 0.5mm. I went to our local Nissan dealer and he had access to four sizes, 0.75, 0.5, 0.254 and 0.127. I didn’t bother with a price for the 0.75, but the 0.5 was $22!! The smaller ones were about $5 and $2. He also told me he’d never had to order any EVER before and my trusted mechanic said the same! I got four of the two smaller ones, figuring I’d only drop a little at a time. So having gone from 0.5 to 0.38 top and bottom and both sides, the difference is sensational even with the camper still on.
This got me to thinking about those who report that their car shook from new, I don’t know what the manufacturing tolerances are, but if those with wobbles from new got the wide tolerance, the standard shimming might not take up the slack and so when you stick a load in the back as we all tend to do, the opportunity for the wobbles is magnified as the weight comes off the front axle, so reducing the shimming might help them too.
It seemed that the weight on the rear transferred weight away from the front axle and so allowed any fault to be magnified. We have airbags in the rear, so I increased the height hoping to put more weight on the front axle, this worked a bit and so did lowering the tyre pressure ( I had seen this mentioned on the forum), but it still shook b/n 76 and 85. When we got back I headed straight for the forum and figured I’d try the swivel hub bearing shims. Mine had a single shim in each spot of 0.5mm. I went to our local Nissan dealer and he had access to four sizes, 0.75, 0.5, 0.254 and 0.127. I didn’t bother with a price for the 0.75, but the 0.5 was $22!! The smaller ones were about $5 and $2. He also told me he’d never had to order any EVER before and my trusted mechanic said the same! I got four of the two smaller ones, figuring I’d only drop a little at a time. So having gone from 0.5 to 0.38 top and bottom and both sides, the difference is sensational even with the camper still on.
This got me to thinking about those who report that their car shook from new, I don’t know what the manufacturing tolerances are, but if those with wobbles from new got the wide tolerance, the standard shimming might not take up the slack and so when you stick a load in the back as we all tend to do, the opportunity for the wobbles is magnified as the weight comes off the front axle, so reducing the shimming might help them too.
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