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MG MGB Technical - vibration at 70

i ve just fitted 14 inch minilites ,new 185 70 14 tyers and had them balanced and the tracking checked. i have steering wheel vibration , is this normal as its an old car or could there be something worn on the steering thanks daren
daren

not normal...
Steve Postins

No certainly not normal. It should be rock steady hands off at 70.

Now, was the car OK with the previous wheels, are the minilites new and if not could one be damaged. What make are the tyres. Can you guarantee that your fitter has balanced the wheels properly. Or did one of the stick on weight s fly off.

I think you have a process of elimination on your hands, like swapping wheels front to rear. fitting the spare and so on until you find the culprit.

I wouldn't worry about alignment, track rod ends and other joints etc because whilst they might if they were slack accentuate the problem, the problem has to initially be eliminated at source.

Come back to us and let us know how you progress.
Iain MacKintosh

On my minilites if the stick on weight isn't put toward the outside of the wheel the tie rod will knock it off
you may have thrown a weight.
Pat in Tehachapi
patrick bailey

Whilst I race a midget, it does run on Minilite replicas, to get accurate balancing (whilst not having the weights knocked off by the track rods), I have the wheels balanced but specify that the weights must be placed on the centre centre of the rim - just behind the "spokes". Also we have used an aluminum self adhesive tape that is stuck over the weights to give added adhesion. Take it from me, after one trip through the gravel traps and the rims pick up grit between the rim and the tyre beading the vibration is unbelievable pronounced.

regards

Andrew

MG Midget 1380cc (race car)
MG Midget 1275cc (road car)
MGB GT Jubilee (in renovation)
A35 Van (just for the fun of it!)
A I McGee

Don't rule out worn uni. joints. They tend to be more speed sensitive than front wheel alignment. Barrie E
Barrie Egerton

Agreed, but this is at a different frequency and does not show up as steering wheel vibration. I had considered this but decided not to mention this as it would probably confuse Daren.
Iain MacKintosh

Also, U-joint vibration is usually noticeable around 40-45 mph. I have superlites on my '73 GT with balancing weights on the inside rims and no vibration problems after about 2500 miles including a lot of 75 mph interstate driving.

The first thing I would do is switch front and rear wheels. Pronounced front wheel vibrations can often practically disappear when the same wheel is put on the rear.

- Allen
Allen Bachelder

That's absolutely right Allen and you will see that I mentioned this in my post. The rear is much less sensitive to balance than the front and this swapping will eventually enable Daren to find out just which wheel(s) are the culprit. The exception to this is of course that the balancer is not properly calibrated and that all four wheels are out of balance. In any event the first course of action would be to go back to the balancer and ask him to recheck for free of course.
Iain MacKintosh

This thread was discussed between 05/08/2005 and 10/08/2005

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