About a month or two ago I had a similar situation develop on my BJ-8
(36800) during a run south on I-275 over the Skyway bridge to have lunch
with Gerry Coker and the Tampa Bay Austin Healey club at Walt Mainberger's
house. The car was running like a dream for about an hour, and then it
suddenly developed an alarming shake that rapidly grew in intensity. I
pulled over to the breakdown lane and checked for flats or other obvious
non-conformances of the running gear...nothing noted. Fortunately, my
significant other and I were only a mile or two from the exit to Walt's so
we cautiously proceeded on, noting that the shimmy/shake would start around
35/40 mph.
After lunch with Gerry and the attending club members, Walt supplied a floor
jack and I jacked up each corner of the car checking for possible causes.
At Marion Brantley's suggestion, I checked the tires and found that the left
rear Michelin XZX was clearly egg-shaped. It was obvious by merely turning
the wheel by hand and sighting the tire circumference in relation to the
fender. There were no other noticeable defects on the outside of the tire.
I put the spare on that corner, and she ran smoothly at 70 to 75 mph all the
way home to St. Petersburg escorted by Marion and Kay in "Blackie". Case
closed.
----- Original Message -----
From: <pennell@cox.net>
To: "Alan Seigrist Blue 100" <healey.nut@gmail.com>;
<healeys@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2007 11:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Rear End Shimmy
> Alan,
>
> I like Larry's suggestion. Have you also checked for warped rotors in the
> rear?
>
> Keith Pennell
>
>> No, I'm not talking about Christina Aguilera!
>>
>>
>> I have a very mysterious rear end shimmy at all speeds, whether in gear
>> or
>> out of gear.
>>
>> When going slow it feels like one of my rear wheels is out of round. It
>> is
>> somewhat severe and getting worse... to the point the car shakes quite a
>> bit
>> at speeds over 40mph. I can feel the shimmy in the seat of the car even
>> doing 10-15 mph.
>>
>> I have checked for oil leaks around the rear hubs (there are none) but I
>> don't expect any because I had just tightened the spline lugs on both
>> sides
>> just about a month ago. No oil is leaking, so I know the lugs are tight.
>>
>> I have a BJ8 with Cape's rear disc brake conversion kit, so it can't be
>> drums out of round. I've looked at the discs closely and they don't
>> seems
>> to have any scoring so it doesn't appear that the hub is loose, but It is
>> hard for me to confirm.
>>
>> There is no noise or whining of any sort, so I don't think the rear hub
>> bearing is bad.
>>
>> The only thing that I can think of is the hub's octagon fixing-nut has
>> come
>> loose somehow and the rear hub bearing is now sitting in a slightly
>> offset
>> position.
>>
>> Any other thoughts before I start ripping the rear end all apart?
>>
>> Alan
> _______________________________________________
> rosowski@tampabay.rr.com
>
> Healeys@autox.team.net
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/healeys
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