I think you are right on in your assessments. The bad shake sounds like its
most likely a bad tire or a tire is out of balance. I have had this problem
many times, particularly with Firestone tires (which I have stayed away
from for more than a decade).
First, balancing all the tires and possibly rotating them would be in
order. The tire shop should detect any problems. I usually check first to
see if a tire shop handles wire wheels. I even did this when I didn't have
wire wheels just to see if the place was competent. Wire wheel owners
should know what I mean.
The alignment on the MGB consists of the toe-in adjustment. Most shops can
do this although I recall one or two claiming my car was too small. Well,
if they say that, go elsewhere. The toe-in is fairly basic if they have the
equipment. The 4-wheel alignment is something with these modern cars. I
don't think there is such a thing on these older rear wheel drives. If your
front end alignment is off, you will get excess wear on the inside or
outside of your tires and possibly harder steering, but I don't believe it
normally causes a shimmy (IMHO).
If all else fails, you could also check for looseness in your front end -
kingpins, wheel bearing areas. But I think you will find the problem in the
tires.
David
67 BGT
71 BGT
At 08:10 PM 5/23/00 -0700, Dan DiBiase wrote:
>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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