Hood and fender shake

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MrMopar

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I have a "shake" in my 72 Swinger that is driving me crazy!! Now for the fun part...... it will change intensity depending on which direction I am travelling. Ya, it sounds nuts but if I travel into the wind it is different if I travel on a road with a side wind or it is even worse with no wind blowing at all. The shake occurs around 58 mph and is worse at 65 mph and I can drive out of it around 70 mph and up. I have new tires, wheels, driveshaft balance, rotors, drums, basically anything that rotates has been replaced. Could it be a suspension part? I have new upper control arm bushings, ball joints and tie rods. I have a new pitman arm also. The car was an original drum brakes all around car but I swapped in the 74 front disc set up and 8.25 rear out of a donor car. The hood and front fender shakes and this is not a driveline vibration. When I get to the "shake" speed of 65 mph, I speed up a bit and then coast in neutral down to 65 and there it is. The thing that boggles my mind the most is that I was travelling to a car show this weekend and when I was into the wind going west, I could drive 65 with no shake at all but when I turned to my south turn off, the shake re-appeared. Aerodynamics??? I need some help with this one guys. Thanks
 
Wheel bearings, new? spindles in good condition? Bent rim ? control arm bushings (upper/lower)? Strut rod bushings?
How does it steer? Does it pull? Maybe loose?

I can understand you situation, this can come from anywhere.
I'm asking all the questions, 1) to bump you back to top, 2) try to narrow it down for someone to be able to give you an answer.

All the best
 
It's poor Aerodynamics and probably has nothing to do with your suspension. One question... Do yo have solid motor mounts?

I have some front sheet metal shake myself... I have solid mounts, everything is tight, and the car drives like a dream. Without the addition of bracing that will tie front together better, little can be done about it.
 
It steers great, spindles, wheel bearings are all new, although I looked under there and the lower control arm bushings do look worn and those I know I have not replaced. I jacked the car up and ran it and the rear tires although they are new, the one on the passenger side does have a wobble to it. I ran it up to 65 and the car hood did not shake but I wasn't moving and transferring the motion. I took my camera and did a clip of it. If I can figure out how you can view it, I will post it and get your opinions. B. F Goodrich Radial T/A's, brand new..................... whats up with that??? Thanks for your suggestions and the poor aerodynamics may play into this one also. I have the factory rubber mounts.
 
You can try unbolting the driveshaft from the rear yoke, and turn it 180º and reinstall it. Makes a huge difference sometimes.

George
 
Yup, did the driveshaft 180* thing too. Have a look on Youtube. Search for Dart tire shake and see if that tire looks bad enough to cause my problem. The driver side tire does it too but not as bad. The shake has to be coming from the back as the steering wheel does vibrate or shake, it seems to travel through the car like an imbalance or something. I had put on a set of drag slicks one time and they were not balanced and the shake was very similar but more pronounced. Check out the video. Thanks again.
 
they havent made brand new ta's for a very long time i do believe cooker makes repops of them. try a different set of frt tires an see if it goes away . my thoughts. some real good tire shops have a way of cking the tire an rim an can tell you if the tire has a issue , forgot what the heck it call though . i use to do it at the dealer i work at .
 
I just bought these tires and don't have 500 miles on them. They were an improvement over the others that I had but what I can't figure out is why did the shake go away on a different stretch of highway and then return all the way home no matter what direction I went on my way home. If the lower control arm bushings are bad, what does the car do? Please look at the you tube video under Dart tire shake just to ease my mind.
 
I,d say that,s your problem.Do you have a tire store around you that can balance the wheel on the car?I think those machines were banned,but we have one store that still has one and I use it,you,d be surprised at the difference in weight compared to balancing off the car.My 2 cents.

P.S Car sounds nice!
 
Come to think of it..... I do run re-pop E70-14s. When I had them balanced I was told "They are ALMOST round"

So I guess tires could be the reason mine shakes a bit too.
 
I'm afraid I'd have to agree on the shaking part of it, as balancing will not correct this, same as a shifted belt.
But what gets me is that it's not constant. The reason why my first question was wheel bearings, as that was my first diagnostic.
And yes, your front will shake from a rear vibration, given the right circumtances.
 
Did the car shake before you exchanged the brakes and rear end? If not look for something in the parts you`ve swapped out. Also remember that new doesn`t necessarily mean straight or round. I`ve had to turn many drums and a couple rotors that were new "fresh off the shelf" and supposed to be true.
 
You guys are giving great suggestions and helping to make me believe that it is the tires and I will go back to the tire store and get them to bring in a couple more for me. I never drove the car before the swap to the disc brakes so I can't say how it drove. I bought the car for $500.00 at a wrecker and started from scratch. I know what you mean about the on car balancer, I used one a long time ago when I was a lot younger and haven't seen one since. I still can't believe the car smoothed out for me on the one direction that I was travelling, that has me second guessing but the tires are the easiest to do and they do have a lot of run-out. I know its got to be somewhere in the back end. I noticed a lot of you do not like BFG's, so could you recommend something for me? Remember, I am in Canada, so my choices may be limited. Size 245/60/14. Thanks to all of you and when I get it figured out you will be the first to know.
 
I don't know of any other company that makes a 245/60/14 other than Goodrich. Hopefully there are other manufacturers out there. Otherwise you fall into the easier to find range of 15".
 
when you make a few turns the same direction you change the rotation of each tire , one tire will rotate further on the outside of the radius than the one on the inside of the radious , this changes how each tire rotates with the other, hope this makes sense. Dane
 
I hear ya but I can't seem to relate it to my problem. Please explain more.
 
7172 duster said:
when you make a few turns the same direction you change the rotation of each tire , one tire will rotate further on the outside of the radius than the one on the inside of the radious , this changes how each tire rotates with the other, hope this makes sense. Dane
Click to expand...

you may have 2 or more tires out of round ,
when you make a long radius turn you change how the out of tire round is syncronized with the other out of round tire
 
Alright, I have found the problem. It IS the back tire or tires. I borrowed a couple of ralleye wheels from my friends Dart and bolted them on and went for a ride. The shake was gone. He had 235/60/14 BFG Radial T/A,s and I was hesitant to try it but the shake is completely gone. Even his worn BFG's were better than my new ones. Sounds to me like the re-pops are losing some quality control. Anyways, I have the cure, now just to get 2 more new tires. Thanks to all for all your suggestions, it has been fun!
 
7172 Duster, you are a very wise man. I got what you were trying to explain about the out of round tires. When I turned the corner, they may have gotten into sync with each other and then the shake went away and when I turned again, they went out of sync and the imbalance came back. Never even occurred to me. Thanks, I will relay this tidbit to my tire shop so they can understand!
 
Before you go buying more repops, that may also be out-of-round, is it possible to find someone who can "true" the tires. This was a trick that was used back in the old days to get rid of irregularities in recaps.

It involves putting the wheel/tire assembly on something like a lathe. As the tire rotates, a powered cutter head takes a small cut off of the tread. When the cutter is pulling rubber off all the way around the tire, it is "trued".

Hope out-of-round or bent wheels have been ruled out.
 
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