As a "free" first step, you might try rotating your rear tires to the
front. If that makes a difference, then wheel balance is your likely
culprit. With wire wheels, I'd rotate one at a time to determine which
one is out of balance, since truing is expensive.
Another free check is to go under the front and take a wrench to every
suspension bolt to check for tightness. I have found the bolts on the
lower arms "finger tight" on more than one occasion.
In my experience, rear wheel balance is not likely to be a factor. When I
rotate a "shakey" wheel to the rear, the vibration felt through the
steering column goes away. A rear wheel out of balance may contribute to
general NVH, however. I don't think there is anything you can do with
rear wheel alignment.
Dan DiBiase had this to say:
>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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>
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