Steering wheel shaking

[maui44]

I noticed that my steering wheel starts shaking some from 65 to 75 MPH in my 1977 911.

It's fine below or above that speed.

Is this most likely a wheel or front-end issue?

Thank you

[McLaren-TAG]

Get your tires balanced first, it's the cheapest and best place to start.

[JAR0023]

Just went through this. Tires. My tires were at least five years old when I bought the car. Balanced, rotated, aligned when I purchased the car in May. Withing 5k miles the car developed a wicked shimmy between 69 and 74. It would fade out and come back around 85. It was kind of crazy as it would sometimes go away completely. I went through all the suspension pieces and found nothing out of place.

I had the tires road force balanced and they were pronounced good. Shimmy was still there. Replaced the tires with new RE-11s and car is smooth as a prom queen's thighs all the way to go to jail speeds. No other parts replaced.

J

[SuperOldSchool]

'smooth as prom queen's thighs..'......thats awesome

[88911coupe]

same here...balanced and wheel shimmy gone...well maybe just the slightest but I have all original parts up front so may not be totally a balance issue. The shimmy had gotten extremely bad before the balance.

[dshepp806]

Tires,..first check on road-forced balancing....!

My car seems to be a bit sensitive to proper air pressures (especially when cold).

BEST!

Doyle

[jason2guy]

like the other guys said. tires.
do those first- all of em.
save urself a bunch of headache

[maui44]

Balancing the tires via the "road force balancing" method look like the place to start.

I think some of the Discount tire stores have the right machine. I going to check around tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and help,

Ron

[JAR0023]

This could help you locate a Hunter Road Force balancer.

Hunter GSP9700 Wheel vibration Control System Locations

J

[Craig_D]

Take your 911, presumably with Fuchs, to a tire specialist familiar with older Porsches. There has to be a few in your area.

If you want your 30+ year old Porsche treated like a crappy civic and probably have the oil lines and rockers crushed on their lift, then by all means, find some discount tire store. But I wouldn't touch one of those places with a dead cat, much less my 911.

Just some advice..

Cheers, - CraigD

[kidrock]

Definitely have wheel balance checked, could also be a tire issue. Very common.

Talk to Jae (like "Jay") at Mirage, I think he's around Kearney Mesa. If he can't do it for you, he'll guide you in on the best source available. Awesome guy with awesome P-car knowledge.

[Flat Six]

+1 for all tire/balancing/pressure above, and one additional item to consider: How often do you drive? I find that if I let the car sit a week or more the tires will flat-spot a little and resonate at speed. For me, takes +/- an hour of driving for them to 'round out' again.

Tire (re-)balance won't help the flat-spotting issue.

Yet another reason to drive it all the time.

HTH

[djk_wff]

Usually my '88 3.2 carrera steering wheel shaking (shimmy), is a reminder that it is time for a valve adjustment!

--------------------------------
1988 Porsche Carrera 3.2
Triple Black

[jason2guy]

yup what CraigD said. on my last tire purchase i went to discount tire- let me just say i do all the the work on this car and it very rarely sees a shop- that being said i decided to stroll out to the work area to check on the car. i was just in time to catch the gorilla roll a jack under the car without looking and begin to crank on that thing like he was mad at it. i got him to stop right in time and asked him what he was thinking, he had no answer. so point being be VERY carefull who u let touch ur 911

[dshepp806]

valve adjustment? WTF?

Doyle

[sm70911]

Uneven tire wear. I had exactly the same problem. New tires and balance. No more shake / vibration.

[porwolf]

Had a similar problem in the rear of my Landcruiser once. It turened out to be internal damage to one of the tires that must have created a small bump. After a while the rear tire exploded on the freeway at 70MPH and tore to shreds. I was lucky that it was in the rear and only caused body damage. I could still go straight onto an off ramp and change the tire.

[donagain1]

I'm still thinking about the prom...

[Autoban]

If balancing the tires doesn't help then you may want to check your tie rods. I had steering wheel shaking at certain speeds and solved it by installing new (turbo) tie rods.