2000 Fronty, 2wd, 4 banger, 5 sp, 70k miles, about 60% tread left on tires, front shocks about 6 months old...
This front end shimmy started about 10k miles ago and has gradually gotten worse...when I get up to about 80 mph the shimmy is quite bad, if I take my hands off the steering wheel, I can watch the steering wheel shake back and forth...I don;t really notice the shimmy very much below about 40 mph
The steering pulls to the left enough so that my steering wheel compensates by my holding it about 20 degrees to the right...
This morning I jacked it up and had another person "wiggle" each front wheel...
Underneath the truck I looked for loose tie rod ends, etc...
There is no looseness in the Relay Rod, either of the Pitman arms, or in the Tie rod ends...
The only looseness I can find is in the steering box itself...when we wiggle either of the wheels everything stays "solid" and the idler arm for the steering box moves back and forth a little...enough I think to accomodate the about of steering wheel shimmy I get when driving...
So, the question is...is there any way I can tighten up the gears in the steering box???
My Haynes only refers to replacing the box...however, there appears to be an adjuster coming directly out of the top on the box which corresponds to the bolt that attaches to the idler arm...
You can see this in Haynes, page 10-21 figure 24.16...it is identified in the picture as item "C" and if you follow that bolt thru the casing toward the top there is a nut on top...possibly tightening this nut might tighten the gears inside the box therby reducing the amount of wiggle in the idler arm...
Place a floor jack under the lower A-frame of your front suspension and raise the front tire off the ground. This is called "preloading" the front suspension. Grab the front tire on the bottom and top and try to pull and push the tire. If it moves (you will be able to feel it) you have to replace your ball joint(s). If you have upper and lower ball joints replace both of them. I would also advise you to replace both sides too.
If there is no movement after testing both front tires take it in for an alignment. If you would rather not do this take it to a shop, ask them to check the ball joints, and watch them perform this to see how it is done.
Good luck.
__________________
1985 Nissan 720 Kingcab SE - 206,000 Miles - 23 MPG
I am planning on doing the alignment...should have mentioned it....
But I want to replace any parts that need to be done myself rather than paying a mechanic to do it...or run the risk of the alignment shop telling me that something is worn out when it really hasn't...
I did NOT test the ball joints as you suggested...I will do that today...as I would like to get the alignment done this week...
When I was wiggling the tires around I grabbed the tire at the 3 and 9 o'clock position and moved in and out to put movement into the steering linkage...this is where I found that there was some movement inside the steering gearbox...thusly my question on tightening it up...
I am also going to rotate the tires today and see if that makes any difference...
Linear Mode
