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Hi Folks:

I just hit the road with my 1928 533 and noticed that the front end would dramatically shimmy (side to side) for no reason.

It did this to me twice on different roads at about 20 to 30 MPH. The front end wobbled as if a tire/rim was loose on the car. If I slowed down after about 5 seconds, steering and driving would return to 'normal'.

Any thoughts, suggestions?

Thanks, Gar

What is the service history on the car? Shimmy is caused by worn/loose parts or something being out of alignment. Worn out shocks, out of spec caster/camber/toe in/out, tires out of round, or looseness in the kingpin are the most common causes.

Disc wheels or artillery wheels? If artillery wheels are starting to come loose at the hub they can wreak all sorts of havoc.

Sorry. I do not know what the difference is between the two wheels.

Gar, from 1933 models; artillery (wood spoke) wheel top, then steel disc (disteel) wheel following.

Attach file:

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  33 wood spoke.JPG (57.43 KB)


  33 1004 disc wheel.JPG (42.53 KB)

Thanks for the pics! Disc wheel.

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Well, then unless they're out of balance, at least we can rule the tires and wheels out as being the problem!

Any idea on how I can get the tires checked to see if they are in balance?

I called several tire places but no luck.

I had a couple of times when wheel shimmy occurred and its not pleasant. It even broke a hood clip as the radiator rocked uncontrollably. I too have disc wheels. I checked the tyre pressures and the front ones were down to about 20 psi. I found that if they are at around 35 psi there is much less tendency for shimmy to occur. As an extra precaution I fitted a modern steering damper to the tie rod and anchored it to the spring clamp on the front axle. So far I have had no more occurrences.

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Try a place that specializes in mounting and balancing truck tires, as in heavy truck tires, they'll likely have the machine needed to do it, these wheels won't fit on most regular modern wheel balancing machines.