Steering Problem / SWB safari

[T]

Hi guys, had a problem arise today travelling on open road with my steering. I was sitting at 100ish k when all of a sudden my steering wheel started shaking violently so I stopped and checked the whole front end over ie; bushes , bearings etc nothing loose or worn .It did this several more times at various speeds .So had to crawl home 20mins with no further incident.Anyone out there had this happen? Im at a loss as to what the problem could be. The only thing I haven't replaced in the front end is the steering damper but I wouldn't have thought that could cause this sort of problem. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Cheers T

[Armourguard]

Yeah it happened to me bringing the Cruiser home from Hamilton did the whole check out everything also on side of motorway turns out part of the tyre had delamenated had a big bulge in it could only see it when i jacked it up and spun wheel

Might be worth a shot

[1nzsafari]

same happen to me ended being bulge on the inner sidewall cheers tim

[nuts]

went the whole nine yards and found that it was the tire inner wall bulge

[T]

Thanks for your suggestions guys , checked out tyres couldn't see any obvious problems so I swapped the fronts to rear and rears to front in case there was something I had missed but the problem is still there.So I am in the middle of tearing the front end apart, cleaning regreasing and putting back together.I'll post what I find.

[T]

Well I dismantled both hubs cleaned and repacked and assembled, checked and tweaked up every thing that might have needed it and still problem exits so I took it in for a wheel alignment and got tyres rebalanced and put up to 40psi. The alignment was out by a mere fraction and so the balancing on tyres but it was the problem.It just goes to show that a fraction of a degrees can make a huge difference.
T

[haydgq]

Hey guys with the gq shimmy probs, Its normally tyre/wheel ballance and some times even cheap tyres than arent 100% true can cause it, then after that its usually panhard rod bushes, Even after playing in the mud a bit of s##t sticking on the rim somewere will usually cause a shimmy. cheers hope that helps and thats what its allways been for me and my mates gq shorty

[T]

Hi guys back again my problem that I thought had been solved has reappeared even worse this time, (violent shuddering of steering wheel at all speeds) this is doing my head in trying to sort this problem ,Has anyone else had this reoccur? For such a simple system the safaris have I'm buggered if I can sort it.

[DieselBoy]

Its called wheel shimmy.

Its caused by worn/sloppy king pin bearings. Replace or correctly shim those and it will go away.

[Shane]

what suspension mods have been done?
Lift?etc
Did it just start one day?

Shane

[T]

Have done 60mm susp lift, 40mm body lift ,and have put offset casters in to correct front diff. But all this has been done for a while now and this problem has just started out of the blue. On Diesel Boys advice have just finished pulling kingpin bearings out of left side there was a bit of water,and rusty type crappy grease inside so have cleaned them up and I am getting new shims made up tomorrow so will get both sides done and see what happens. I have already done wheel bearings in bothsides so have just about run out of things to replace,clean,regrease etc.

[crankn]

Can anyone give a quick run down of how to do this, ive got the same problem, jacked up the front wheels and there is movement in the hubs, doesnt virbrate very much but if i hit a bump on the motorway while going around a bend they can vibrate so violently that i have to slow down to 50kms before they straighten up again.

Im very mechanically minded, just have never owned a 4wd before, so i wont be paying anyone to do this for me, can anyone point me in the right direction to find the information i need to fix the problem?

is there an adjustment in the hubs to fix the small vibration?? or do i need to replace the bearings

[DieselBoy]

Its easy as.

If you remove the front wheels, you will see a cap that has 4 14mm bolts (from memory, could be 12mm) holding in down. Remove that cap and underneath is the king pin bearing. There is a bearing on the top and one underneath the hub under an identical cap.

The cap should have shims under it. If the bearings are in good codition, remove a shim or two untill the play is gone, or replace the bearings.

[crankn]

i assume its irrellevant that i have auto locking hubs at the front? do all safari's have these at the front?

[mudzilla]

Hi Guys..i dont have a Nissan ,, Just a Hilux ,, Similar set up though ,, Coiled ,, I have had the shakes in the steering myself and from what you discribe it sounds like panhard bushes to me .. even the smallest movement in the panhard is enough to set off the shakes .. good luck .. hope this helps ..
Wayne

[T]

Well I've taken both hubs , king pin bearings and axels completely apart cleaned and repacked with grease etc. The shims on the kingpins were half a mil on top and quarter of a mil on bottom of both so i've taken the bottoms out and replaced the top ones with them so have effectively taken quarter of a mil off all four.The bearings weren't worn but a small amount of water had got into the ball of the diff so a fair bit of cleaning and buffing of all parts was required to remove surface rust. All back together now and 100% better than it was, and although the violent shaking has gone there is still a very very very small wobble from time to time , it might be me been to fussy , not sure , but anyhow will obviously keep an eye on it and see what happens. This all took roughly 2 and a half hours per side, they (safaris) are very easy to work on . Thanks for all your help. Cheers T

[coxsy]

could the steering dampener be part of the prob ,just a thought

[T]

I had thought about the steering damper so I took it off went for a drive and it still did it, I also thought it could be a problem with the valves in the power steering so I removed the p/s belt and it still did it, my shocks are only six months old and panhard has reasonably new nolathene bushes the only thing that hasn't been replaced is the ball joints on steering arms but they have no play in them that I can tell but if all else fails I will replace them to be sure.

[DieselBoy]

Good stuff.

I would think from what you have said, you have nearly got it sorted. I would measure the effort required to turn the swivlehub to check its not to loose still.

To do this, take the wheels off and pop the drag link off. Measure from the taper where tie rod end would go. The turning effort should be between 0.6 - 1.75kg. If its less, you will still be suffereing from wheel shimmy.

There should have been three shims under the top cap, and two under the bottom. you reckon there were two at the top and one at the bottom. This indicates that the bearings have caused problems already, and have been adjusted by the previous owner. Sounds to me like you have run out of adjustment and need to replace them

[DieselBoy]

i assume its irrellevant that i have auto locking hubs at the front? do all safari's have these at the front?

Yep, you don't touch the free wheeling hubs. The king pin bearing caps are on the swivel hub. Take the wheel off and look over the top and behind the brake disc gaurd, its right there in plain view, and the other is opposit it underneath.

[GQTROL]

I would go back to genuine Nissan rubber bushes in the panhard rod. Nolathane is not as forgiving as rubber and soon flogs out...this could well be the source of the remaining vibrations.

[DieselBoy]

I would go back to genuine Nissan rubber bushes in the panhard rod. Nolathane is not as forgiving as rubber and soon flogs out...this could well be the source of the remaining vibrations.

Hmmmm, interesting Mitch. I replaced my front PanHard rodbushes a few months ago as the rubber bush at the diff end had come delaminated and was clunking around.

When i was down south, the pan hard rod started to clunk around again on sharp low speed cornering in town. No wheel shimmy though

[T]

Well I've been thinking about all your comments & suggestions they are all very helpful, so I'm thinking that one by one I'll replace with new bushes & bearings that were on it when I got when I purhased it now that I know what the problem/s were/are. I must admit I wasn't to worried about getting new parts as the old girl although an 89 has only done 150k and before I got it was very standard and only used as a towing vehicle. It has been in some pretty s#*tty places since I've had her so maybe the combo of sitting around most of its life and then been thrown in the deep end when I got her has done more harm than good ?????? T

[GQTROL]

I would go back to genuine Nissan rubber bushes in the panhard rod. Nolathane is not as forgiving as rubber and soon flogs out...this could well be the source of the remaining vibrations.

Hmmmm, interesting Mitch. I replaced my front PanHard rodbushes a few months ago as the rubber bush at the diff end had come delaminated and was clunking around.

When i was down south, the pan hard rod started to clunk around again on sharp low speed cornering in town. No wheel shimmy though

The only 100% cure we've found for this is to replace the panhard bushes with a piece of "oily bush" machined down to suit. It seemed to have enough give in it to not transmit road vibrations through the steering. If you see Aarons old truck screaming around Hamilton, I would be interested to know how it is holding up.

Other than that, the bushes that come in the Tough Dog panhards last very well, as I'm sure they're genuine Nissan.

[mudzilla]

Hi Mitch..What Is oily bush ? I will have to try this next time the HiLux gets the shakes .. panhard bushes dont last long with 36s on 10inch wheels ,,, Cheers , Wayne

[GQTROL]

Hi Mitch..What Is oily bush ? I will have to try this next time the HiLux gets the shakes .. panhard bushes dont last long with 36s on 10inch wheels ,,, Cheers , Wayne

Its oil impregnated HDPE plastic. Same as used for body lift blocks, but manufactured with some special oil in it. Not cheap though, Az just happened to have some lying around.

I'm sure normal HDPE would work just as well.

[crankn]

i took the caps off today and there was one shim on the top and one on the bottom, so i took both of them out, no more movement in the wheels as far as im aware, although i guess some new bearings are on the cards.

Where do you guys get replacement shims?