Unique 427 front end shake

[David Russell]

I can't seem to get rid of the front end shakes. The car rides fine up till about 60 and then starts a variable light to moderate steering wheel shake that seems to be aggravated by bumps.
I've run the car on a lift, no shake. Everything is tight, the front is aligned perfectly and the tires have been balanced several times.
Unique 427 with 15 inch Trigos, Goodyear Eagle GT II.
Could it be the Goodyear Tires?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Dave Russell

[decooney]

David,

actually, its more common than one might think. I had this problem with my last Unique for a bit, and experience it a bit with my ERA. It comes and goes sometimes, as you will notice. Here are a few things that are worth checking

in addition to things like wheel bearings, etc.

- Tire Pressure: I ran 26-28 in my Unique. Since the engine sits so far back, try running 25lbs, and see what changes or not.

- Tires out of round, old, etc. My friend had a problem with his Unique too, and changed from one brand to another brand, and it settled down a bit.

- Front-end height. I found that by lowering the front end of the Unique (Putting more weight on the front tires) also made a difference. The light weight front can be interesting, if the suspension is not set up or adjusted correctly on this car. If you lower it a lot, it completely goes away in some cases, putting a load on the tires... could be an indication of other problems.

- Springs, the Unique coilovers from the factory are usually too stiff, and too short. I went from a CS10400 to a CS12300, with a shorter Carerra shock, and there was a huge difference shake, steering, handling.

- Check your Trigo wheel to see if it might be just a tad bit bent. You need to check with Lynn Park to see what is acceptable.

- Check to make sure your Trigo wheel/adapter is completely seated, and that the wheel is sliding ALL the way onto the pins. This one is VERY important. Look closely.


- swap wheels/tires with a friend if you can, and that usually helps to narrow things down a bit too sometimes.

Good Luck.

[David Russell]

Great advice!

Thanks Duane

[computerworks]

David...did you see this thread?
Steering Wheel Shake, a Poll

[Bob In Ct]

Dave:
Read the post I just did under "Steering Wheel Shake".

Bob

[Buzz]

Dave, are you using the current coil over suspension or the older MGB setup? There is a huge difference. I swapped to the coil over system and all of the problems with the old front end (including the shakes) went away. Decooney is probably right too about the front ride height. I lowered mine a bit mainly to reduce high speed lift and I experience no shake at any speed, even WELL above 100 mph. BTW, I am running BFG's on PS Engineering bolt-ons. Good luck sorting it out.