Dan,
Have you any knowledge of the age and condition of the rubber bushings
in the front end? Have you tried shaking the wheels with them jacked off
the road to check for any slack in the suspension or tie-rod ends or
wheel bearings?
If bushings are good and there isn't any slack, then alignment and
balancing are always appropriate. Any shop can do this for you--MGs are
nothing exotic.
The language of alignment seems to vary around the country, the way
"regular" coffee is different. You want to be sure that the rear wheels
are following the front wheels. This is something you and a helper can do
with a piece of string (actually) but for the ten or fifteen bucks the
alignment shop adds to the cost of a front-wheel alignment, I'd let them
check it.
Be sure that the steering wheel is centered when they do the alignment.
MGBs have only the toe-in adjustment---no caster or camber adjustments,
so the job is quick and easy for them, and they might even give you the
rear axle check for free. All they do is to turn the steering rack
adjusters in or out to bring the front wheels parallel, with 1/16 to 1/8
inch toe-in.
Bob
On Tue, 23 May 2000 20:10:59 -0700 (PDT) Dan DiBiase
<d_dibiase@yahoo.com> writes:
> Hi, I know there have been several threads over
> front-end vibrations in the past few months, but I did
> not see one that really discussed diagnosing the
> problem. My 76 B Tourer has a really bad 'shake'
> beginning at 55 mph - it goes at least to 60 mph,
> which is as fast as I want to go with the front-end
> shaking as it does.... So, my thoughts for fixing this
> are as follows -
>
> 1) Have front tires balanced, test drive... If no
> improvement, then....
>
> 2) Have front-end aligned, test drive... If no
> improvement, what should be my next step?
>
> Should I also have my rear tires balanced at the same
> time as the fronts? Can a 'regular' alignment be done
> on the MGB, at a 'regular' shop? How about a 4-wheel
> alignment, or is this really only for more modern cars
> that have some adjustment in the rear?
>
> While I rarely drive over 55 mph (turning about 3,000
> rpm and pretty noisy!) I don't like the idea of
> something lurking in the front-end of my car.
>
> TIA!
>
>
> =====
> Dan D
> Dayton, NJ
> 76 MGB Tourer
>
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