Home   Forum   Classifieds   Tech/DIY   News   Articles   Chat   Contact Us

New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Forum rules
Welcome to the Tech/DIY information archive. This area of the board is for reference purposes, please direct general tech discussion to the G Wagen Technical Forum.
User avatar
Gelande
Posts: 5327

New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#1 » Tue May 11, 2010 6:54 am

OK..

So I got new stock tires, balanced, and alignment.
both tires at 37psi
Bearings are fine
Kingpins fine
steering rod ends and track bar ends are fine
Drag Link and Pitman bushings appear solid

Vibration happens between 45 and 60 mph, and only when I let off of the throttle and decelerate thru that range.
Happens in any gear, or in neutral. But this is not just vibration, it is serious back and forth in the steering from wheels to steering wheel, like if you are going straight the steering wheel goes back and forth from 10 oclock to 2 oclock on its own...you can't even hold on the force is so great......have to jam on the brakes and get below 40mph then it just vanishes.

Its so bad I've blown out two steering shocks in one week.....when shock is on, and not blown, you barely feel it.
Once blown, or shock removed, its violent.

Interestingly, it gets progressively more and more violent and I can barely hold the steering wheel. My wife drove behind me and said front wheels are wagging back and forth while car going straight!

any ideas?? had it on the lift yesterday, and there is no play in anything except between steering linkage and steering wheel.

Went off-road all day Saturday, drove home 2 hours no problems, no shakes, then next day, all crazy like out of nowhere!

Its not driveshaft related (not that type of vibration, and shafts are checked and fine)
:(

User avatar
4x4abc
Posts: 533
Contact:

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#2 » Tue May 11, 2010 9:25 am

toe in up to specs?

sounds like the caster of the wheels is off (would not know why but the symptoms are alike)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwiv23dLhMY&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj9PNNChVm4

User avatar
Gelande
Posts: 5327

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#3 » Tue May 11, 2010 10:01 am

ok thanks I will start with checking caster and realign the front end.

death wobble is exactly what it is!

User avatar
Dai C
Posts: 786

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#4 » Tue May 11, 2010 2:54 pm

You can check toe in with a tape measure comparing spots on the front of the front wheels with the same spot on the tread in the rear of the front wheels. I did this with my wife's TD and determined that the "alignment shop" had not done the work after replacement of tie rod ends and idler arm bushings. It had nearly a quarter of an inch of toe out. That causes very bizarre things to happen in the steering.

Specs for my '85 GD are: Toe-in 0 plus/ minus 1mm. I like .5 to 1mm toe in.
Camber 1 degree plus/minus 20'
Kingpin inclination 9 degrees plus/minus 20'
Caster 5 degrees plus/minus 20'

-Dai

User avatar
ontum
Posts: 401

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#5 » Tue May 11, 2010 4:11 pm

We've got a friend of ours at the shop with a G55 who has had the same problem for some time. Tires balanced, no play in anything, etc and it the steering wheel just gets violent some time. She hasn't wanted us the take too much time to look at it lately, but I think we will be attempting to fix it soon. She also switched to her winter tires a little while after it started and thought it made an improvement, but then it came back.

What we are going to look at are the main bushings holding the suspension in place as a whole. We think that the entire suspension setup is shifting as an entire unit. But again we haven't spent much time looking into it, or researching past fixes of this problem. So if I figure it out before you do I'll let you know.

User avatar
inkblotz
Posts: 8202

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#6 » Wed May 12, 2010 3:47 am

I would rotate the front tires to the back to eliminate the possibility of a bad wheel. Mine did this every time in a certain speed range and it was finally determined that the Wheel itself was slightly out of round. I had a Wheel Wizard shop make it round again. They super heat it and bring it back to factory spec.

M

User avatar
pierre repairs
Posts: 2145

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#7 » Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:30 am

Hi Guys not sure it is the same but concerns also vibes at front end....
Salut a tous

I discovered with horror yesterday the already assumed reason for those vibes especially when the car is cold...
It all started back last spring after a very very muddy and wet off road day...
I thought as usual that below were the culprits:
1. Mud on discs and brake saddles
2. Lack of grease on joints / drive lines
3. Excessive mud on rotating gears

All cleaned with high / low pressure wash, all points greased and situation got better
But then I got heavy trilling / vibes on the automatic gear box stick????
Car on the lift and replaced support rubbers on differential and automatic gear box...

Improved for a while but still on cold it was going from bad to worse...

Yesterday visited Cor Millenaar work shop and we did what needed to be done..... Replaced the last 2 buggers .....
Here are the pictures....
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Note that on the W463.331, you have 2 types of rubbers - yellow on te left side and white on the right side.
To get easier acces on the left, inlet manifold needs to be removed .... In case the rubbers are as bad as on the pictures, most probably the easiest it just to remove the engine support arms and later cut the rubber .... reckon 4 hours!

By the way thanks to Cor's Mechanics ... had a good time with them !!
A+
G300TD - W463.331 & G250 - W461.401 Wolf LL

Gwanabe
Posts: 329

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#8 » Sat Jan 09, 2016 10:40 pm

What year and how many KM has the G those mounts came out of?

User avatar
pierre repairs
Posts: 2145

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#9 » Sun Jan 10, 2016 11:03 am

Hi the G is from 1998 with 355k KM - no idea when were those last changed trust they must have been changed at least once as the other 300TD with half of the kilometers on the clock was on the same shape...
G300TD - W463.331 & G250 - W461.401 Wolf LL

User avatar
AlanMcR
Posts: 7729

Re: New G500 vibration with front end....suggestions?

Post#10 » Sun Jan 10, 2016 3:34 pm

Mine got replaced at 100K Miles. They had big cracks in the rubber but hadn't completely severed yet. Given that I've put on almost 140K more miles, I suppose it is time to take a close look again.
...Alan

Return to “Tech: Driveline, Axle, Shafts, Bearings, Solve your Vibration Issues Here!”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 35 guests