"wobbly" disco

Could easily be unbalanced front wheels matey.

Nige

-- Subaru WRX (Annabel)

Landrover 110 County Station Wagon (Tyson)

'"They called him Jimmy the gent"

Yes both the above can cause the symptoms you describe.

Try removing the damper and mannually work it through it's range of movement. If you get any slack areas. Usually around the centre then it requires replacement.

The preloads are a matter of disconnecting the trackrod ends and checking with a spring balance. It's not hard to do, just time consuming.

It's also worth taking the brake pads out when checking as they will mask any bearing movement and create the impression that the swivel pins bearings are defunct rather than the wheel bearing.

Also worth checking all your track rod ends given there are so many.

Lee D

so snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com was, like...

1. Unbalanced front wheels - try swapping them side-to-side. Large amounts of mud will also do this - think Jumbo's 90 at anything over 35mph. Frightened me.
2. Incorrect swivel pre-load.

I don't think this is a damper problem. AIUI, the damper is mainly there to prevent violent steering movement off-road or if you hit a big pothole. Under normal circumstances, the steering *shouldn't* need damping. If you fit a new damper and stops the shaking, all you have done is mask the problem. The shaking forces are still there, they're just being damped out. BICBW.

Agreed, i've had this on my car and it was caused by unbalanced wheels. Get this checked before trying anything else as its the easiest option!

Could also just be bad wheel balance, get the balancing done (should cost about 6-10 quid) and see if that helps, if not then steering damper is easiest to check by nicking one off someone else's disco (with permission of course), then if that doesn't work get the preload checked.

That's almost 100% certain to be incorrect preload on the hubs, I have had it happen on several Discoveries & Defenders. It's relatively easy to fix if you have a selection of king pin shims and a large spring balance to set the preload.

Hope this helps, Fergus

On or around 22 May 2005 02:32:08 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com enlightened us thusly:

if it happens mostly when you hit a bump with one wheel, I'd reckon steering damper; the 110 used to do the same 'til I replaced it.

also check:

wheel balance wheel bearings ball joints steering box play main dampers and yes, swivel bearings/preload.

The real answer is probably "all of the above", insofar as that attention to each of the items above is likely to yield some improvement (unless they have recently been attended to). . You could feasibly have the original dampers and ball joints on there (certainly well on the way to shagged if so) contributing just a little play and vagueness. Add in lack of preload, a bit of adjustment in the steering box, a bit of play in the wheel bearings and wheel balance that isn't spot on and it adds up to a handling nightmare. It's just a matter of working out where the biggest contribution is coming from and whether you can live with what remains.

To "fix this right" I'd want to have the whole lot checked over. The parts are all pretty cheap, so once it's in the air with the wheels off it won't cost much more to fully sort it. I've been here - cheap fix to the steering damper made no odds, so I had it fully fettled with great results.

As was said previously - the damper is just covering up play that shouldn't ideally be there in the first place.

I've had that as well. Can you drive through the shake? An unbalanced wheel can be driven through in a range of 10 to 20mph from when it becomes detectable. It won't go completely but will definately have a peak(*) as the wheel RPM passes through resonance.

(*) Might be so bad that you can't safely drive through it...

On or around Sun, 22 May 2005 12:05:47 GMT, "news.virgin.net" enlightened us thusly:

wasn't on my 110, it was a non-functional steering damper.

and when you say hubs I assume you mean swivels. Hub bearings have 2 different setting regimes on discos depending on which axle it is I suspect

- the early axle with the solid drive flange/shaft bit isn't the same as the later one with the separate driving member and the plastic oil-retaining hat.

On or around Sun, 22 May 2005 13:40:49 +0100, Tim Hobbs enlightened us thusly:

All good advice. Mind, the damper is probably the easiest bit of all to change :-)

ball joints are easily checked, in the same way that they do on the MOT: have someone shake the steering wheel back and fore about 1/4 turn max. and watch the joints for movement.

ball joints can be a piece of wossname to change or can be an absolute bastard. changing the RHS one on our 300 TDi had me resorting to an oxy torch to heat the rod in order to shift it. When I put it back, it had copper grease in the threads, pity LR don't do that in the first place.

Our 95 did the same. I had the wheels balanced but it was still the same. Set pre load on swivels, it helped a bit. Shiney new steering damper, that helped a bit more. The garage who changed the damper suggested getting the wheels balanced at a place that when they balance the wheel on their machine it is held on by the same holes aas the wheel bolts and NOT on the centre hole like most as they have had problems with the centre hole not being dead centre. Anyway, did as he said and now havent got any steering shake/wobble all the way up to 95mph (on a private road of course!!). Richard

Further to all the above, get the tyres checked for roundness - if they are wearing unevenly in places around the circumference that will cause a wobble. In that case it's shocks. Mine had a dreadful understeer with duff shocks too. I didn't realise what it was as it passed MOT like this, but thanks to advice from others on this ng the problem was solved. They were only about 20 quid for the pair too.

TonyB

And the damper, the unbalanced fronts introduce a bit of tremble which quickly becomes a vigorous shake if the damper is knackered.

I collected a Discovery from Sheffield like that and the drive back to SW Wales was "entertaining"

I'd check track rod ends, following to wheel balancing. I have also such a 'mad' Disco. Current TR ends are diagnosed as 'worth changing' and are ordered already, so i can tell results shortly. Front shocks change made things a bit better as well.

Kalev

Thanks for all the info, i'd totally forgotten about the possibility of out if balance wheels. Judging by the previous owner It's probably flat spots on the tyres. I haven't had chance to drive it very far because of the fact it wobbled off the road into a hedge. I will certainly take the wheels off and sling them in the back of the 90 and drop them off at the tyre place on the way to work. All i've got to do now is find some disco panels and glass to replace the broken ones! Ho hum

Cheers

Dave

On or around 25 May 2005 13:04:54 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com enlightened us thusly:

Had a nice wobble in the recently-acquired minibus, which I attributed to a badly-off-balance wheel. I'd swapped tyres and wheels from back to front (there are 4 at the back). Now fitted new fatter front ones, run at lower pressure, and dropped the rear pressures from 46 to 34, which has improved the very harsh ride no end. I reckon the rears might stand 32, at that; after all, there are 4 of 'em carrying the load.

What sort of minibus did you get Austin?

Thats it. Changed track rod ends and wobbling is pretty much gone, at least in my case. Just feeling those up'n'down bumps on track, where my steering went mad previously. Normal cruise speed is no more limited to 90 kph so i have to keep eye on speedo.

Kalev