Steering saws side-side at speed if you let go of the wheel

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

My MM has always done this -- above 45 mph, if you let your hands off the steering wheel, it saws side to side slightly, about 1/8" back and forth, quickly. The weight of resting your hands on the steering wheel pretty much makes it go away but you can always slightly feel it. Tires have been replaced and I rebalanced them myself personally on a Coates machine that I trust is accurate. Other than a bent wheel (which I am going to measure when I can get my friend to get me into his friend's dealership where I can use their road force machine), is there anything else odd about these cars that can cause this? It's not your typical bent wheel shimmy that you can feel in the whole car. It is totally isolated to the steering wheel wanting to saw back and forth slightly at speed. I'll take a video of the wheel doing it if you want to see it. It feels like the issue is in the rack itself.


Wasn't there a TSB about adjusting the lash on the rack to eliminate what I am feeling?

[Bradley G]

Yeah, The Nibble.
If it is speed sensitive, it's usually the tires.

I got it again too, not near as severe as when I first got the Marauder.
It wasn't till I got the front tires warrantied & road force balanced, the problem was finally gone.
But in answer to your question.
Yes there was a TSB for steering gear yoke adjust and also one where body mounts(8 rubber pucks) were too tight.

[Black_Noise]

jack up the front of the car, and spin the wheels by hand and watch the bottum of the tire from the front to back down, watch the tread and see if it is moving side to side.

Sound like a seperated belt in the tire

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Black the tires only have a few K on them but they are the horrible BFG KDW stock type so anything is possible. I have another new front size KDW on the spare so I suppose I could swap it on to the fronts one at a time and see if that matters... the MM always takes a back seat to my disaster project cars so I haven't pursued this further but it is getting annoying. Will check and report back. Thanks.

Steve

[ImpalaSlayer]

i have something similar going on so ill ber watching this.

[gmtech]

yep its the tires

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

the funny thing is I am 100% sure it did this with the stock BFG's, before I replaced them with new, same exact KDWS. I have been holding off replacing these crap tires because they are almost new but I think I am going to have to take the plunge and switch brands (and sizes)

[Joe Walsh]

I just took my P235-50 KDWs off the front rims and they are in better shape than the P245-55 rears that you bought from me.
Would you be interested in buying them?
(I had NO shimmy/vibration problems with my OEM tires.)

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I appreciate the offer but I have to determine whether tires are indeed my problem in the first place. I am skeptical, since I have had 2 sets of tires on the car. If and when I end up replacing the rears, I am going to buy a matched set of 4 of something else probably. I don't put enough miles on the car to worry about that yet. Will keep that in mind, I'll look at the treads on my front tires this weekend if I get around to it.