Steve -
Yes you are correct.... balancing the tires and truing the wheels is
critical. If you did have the freeway scuttle shake previously... and didn't
replace the shocks... your shocks are still probably worn.
A good check (if you have the shake) is to have someone drive next to you
on the freeway... if they can visibly see the tire bouncing up and down...
this means the shock is shot. Your tires and wheels are out of balance too.
I see this fairly often on old British cars with lever shocks... the dreaded
bouncing freeway wheel. My old MGB did this too until I replaced the
shocks....
Cheers,
Alan
'53 BN1 '64 BJ8
On 9/27/05, BJ8Healeys <sbyers@ec.rr.com> wrote:
>
> Alan -
> My experience may be an exception to your rule, but I have had the same
> shocks on my car for the more than 20 years I have owned it. Until I had
> my
> tires/wheels trued and balanced by Allen Hendrix, I always had an annoying
> shake about 55 - 60 mph. As a matter of fact, this went on until the
> mounting surface for the left front shock fatigued in multiple cracks, in
> spite of many attempts by the local tire artisans to balance my tires.
>
> Whether it helped or not, while I had my engine out for rebuild a few
> years
> ago I installed the "Bill Bolton Anti-Scuttle Shake Mod" to my firewall.
> Since this was done just prior to my original balance job done by Mr.
> Hendrix, I can't say if one or the other definitely solved the problem;
> but
> I suspect that paying attention to the tires and wheels was at least 99%
> of
> the ultimate solution. If I ever buy another Healey, getting the wheels
> and
> tires properly set up by Allen Hendrix will be the first thing I do.
>
> Happy Healeying!
>
> Steve Byers
> HBJ8L/36666
> BJ8 Registry
> Havelock, NC
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-healeys@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-healeys@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Blue One Hundred
> Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 6:26 PM
> To: BEAU2EVE@aol.com
> Cc: healeys@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: 45 to55 shake
>
>
> Beau -
>
> In my years on this list, almost everyone gets this wrong....
>
> Freeway-speed scuttle shake on a healey is almost always caused by worn
> front shock absorbers. When your front shock absorbers are bad, the front
> wheels will bounce up and down on the freeway when they are rotating near
> the natural harmonic frequency of a slightly imbalanced wheel. Balancing
> helps, but the only thing that will get rid of the bouncing (& shaking) is
> to make sure you have a new set of front shocks on your car. Thank
> goodness
> this is a relatively easy and cheap repair!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
> '53 BN1 '64 BJ8
>
> On 9/27/05, BEAU2EVE@aol.com <BEAU2EVE@aol.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi, I,m new to the list but, a healey owner for many years. Has anyone
> had
> > skuttle shake in their car an actually solved it.
> >
> > Balance all 4 wheels on a splined set up still have it
> > Recently had the rear drums balanced still have it
> > All the weels are 1 to 3 years old
> >
> >
> > I,m running 185-70 Pirelli's at 26 lbs
> >
> > Any help is welcome, Beau
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