Front End wobble
 

At times when applying the brakes the front end starts to wobble and doesn't stop until I come to a complete stop. It does not happen all the time but is becoming more frequent. Any ideas what I can do to correct this?

Re: Front End wobble
 

Ghenry , I have the same issue on my 29 coupe ... Looking forward to the responses ....

Re: Front End wobble
 

Worn king pins?

Re: Front End wobble
 

Out of round drums, worn ball joints, worn cups, worn kingpins, check for wear everywhere. :)

Re: Front End wobble
 

One possible cause could be wear on the wishbone ball which decreases the caster setting of the frontend. Sometimes putting a cup washer on top of the ball in the socket will bring the ball down enough to increase the caster and stop the wobble. Not hard to try this fix to see if it does the trick.

Re: Front End wobble
 

Textbook worn Radius Ball. Easy afternoon fix.

Re: Front End wobble
 

I find a lot of A's with loose pitman arm, they have to be real tight. Also loose ends on the drag link. Have some one turn the steering wheel while you watch those parts, You will probable find the problem.

Re: Front End wobble
 

Any and all of the above. Now would be a good time to check each part of the front suspension and steering. Take things apart, clean, inspect, replace/rebuild as necessary and rebuild. Be sure all the ball in the system are round with no flat spots at all.

Re: Front End wobble
 

a common problem.

Check everything, like Mike says.

What has not been mentioned yet is the notorious rubber radius ball repair kit. When the rubber gets bad, they cause wobble. The cure is the correct, original design, new (as in not a worn junk part) radius ball kit. If the cups on that touch when its all bolted up, then the ball is worn, requiring a shim, or to be welded up and filed round to the original 1.5 inch diameter. Most common in my experience, is loose pittman arm or steering box mounting bolts. But, as said it could be anything or a combination of several things.

Re: Front End wobble
 

Loose or worn/damaged front wheel bearings can also cause this. There are many areas of the front suspension system that can be suspect, as mentioned above.

Re: Front End wobble
 

Also check toe-in.

Re: Front End wobble
 

Is there a Ford part number for this wobble? Back in the day it seemed to be standard equipment on any Ford that had spent a few thousand miles on washboard roads (which beat suspension parts up pretty quickly)!

Re: Front End wobble
 

Hi Ghenry,
I see this is your first post. Welcome to the forum and welcome to the hobby. Set your front axle up on jack stands. Then, with a friend wobbling the front tires back and forth, you get under the car and look for where the lost motion (free play) is coming from. Have a look at the steering box, if it is loose you'll see it, and from your description I would place money on that source. In any case, it will be a lot wiser to properly diagnose the problem than to start throwing parts at it. Good Luck!

Re: Front End wobble
 

I have found numerous times the spring perch nuts loose and worn.
Mike

Re: Front End wobble
 

This is known as the "Death Wobble" and can be a result of one cause or a few things all at once. My coupe was doing this dance and it turned out to be the drivers side kingpin and some other things that were all approaching worn out at once.
Terry

Re: Front End wobble
 

Also check for loose wheel bearings.I drove a guy's Model A that had very sloppy steering and the death wobble. First thing I did was turn the left axle nut 2 1/2 turns and the right nut 1 1/2 turns. It made it steer like a new car. Spin the wheel while you tighten the axle nut just a little snug, then lift the wrench and very lightly snug it. This is about the same tightness as a 12" adjustable wrench placed on the nut in the 3 o'clock position.

Sometimes bearings have spun the races in the hub, and this will be another problem to fix. The main thing is to get the axle up on jack stands and check it out as Chris mentioned.

Re: Front End wobble
 

Old Hard Tires.

Re: Front End wobble
 

I had this problem. Like it has been said, check everything. Mine turned out to be and old worn rubber ball. Replaced it with original style repo parts plus a shim and no more issue. Good luck nothings more frustrating than a car that's not dependable

Re: Front End wobble
 

Mine did this occasionally and I had to jerk the steering wheel hard to the left or right. I am hoping that since I am doing a front end rebuild of some 80 year old parts it will go a way and it will stop and ride like a dream.

Oh, by the way welcome to the Barn and please post some pics of your car.

Mike

Re: Front End wobble
 

I want to thank everyone who responded to my question. As soon as it gets fixed, I will let you know what the problem is and what was done to correct it.

Re: Front End wobble
 

There was a recent posting with what sounds like the same symptons,

The writer said that by trying all of the above with not very good results he finally looked a the front brakes as the problem. Lo and behold one of the front brakes would grab,grab,and grab as it rotated until he stopped and every thing was good until he stopped again.

Should be easy to check out. Actually, I might have read this in the "Tiny Tips" book.

Burt

Re: Front End wobble
 

I have found with a dropped axle anyway and all good components there is still the death wopple. The only sure fix I have found is a steering damper.

Re: Front End wobble
 

Ghenry, welcome to the Ford barn! Here is my story with the same problem, tighten the steering screw gear box, and also the castle axle nut was loose but but castle nut lined up with the axle hole but still loose so I tightened the castle then backed off a litte bit then drilled a new hole in the axle put in a new cotter pin good to go .

Re: Front End wobble
 

I had the same problem with my 29 tudor. Could not find any issues?looseness in the front end. The tires were old Sears & hard as a rock, still had good tread. Put new tires on because I switched to blackwalls. Haven't had a wobble since the tire change!

Re: Front End wobble
 

Besides worn parts, caster/camber also come into play here (bent axle), as well as correct toe-in. Also check for loose brake backing plate to the spindles. FWIW
Paul in CT