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vibration and steering[ALL/1998] posted by Nick Aronoff on
Saturday, 16 August 1997, at 12:10 a.m.
Hi! I bought a '80 244DL last November, and I've been methodically fixing all the annoying little problems I've noticed. Since I have no previous experience with Volvos, I'm not entirely sure what is a problem, and what is just normal. The car runs very well, and is in very good shape. It has always been in Southern California (that's where I live) as far as I know, and the last owner was a Volvo mechanic, so he seems to have kept it in very good condition. It is a B21F, K-Jet with Lambda Sond but no CIS, and a M-46 4spd+OD. It has power steering and A/C. The two most bothersome "quirks" are as follows:
1. It shudders/vibrates at approx. 20MPH. It does not seem to be effected
by acceleration, deceleration, or coasting. It used to shudder when
accelerating or decelerating from a stop, also, but that went away when I
replaced the drive shaft center support bearing. The 20MPH shudder seemed
to
lessen in intensity, also, when I replaced the bearing. I suspect that the
shudder may be a D.S. imbalance, because when I replaced the bearing, I
found the yokes on the front half of the shaft were not on the same plain
as a result of someone improperly reassembling the D.S.. The Haynes book
has a diagram that says that those two yokes should line up when the
splined joint is connected. Who knows... If the splined joint wasn't
reassembled properly, the flanges probably weren't reconnected properly
either. When I reassembled the D.S. I reconnected the splined joint so the
yokes are on the same plane, but I could be 180deg. off. Of course, the
shudder might be originating somewhere else entirely. It is not noticable
enough to bother passengers, and if I tried, I could ignore it, but I don't
want to write it off, in case it might be something serious.
2. The steering doesn't return to center from either stop when moving
forward. For the ordinary range of movement, the steering returns to center
like normal, but if I turn it to either extreme, like for a U-turn, I have
to coax it back until it is back to a more reasonable range. If I'm backing
up though, it does return to center, even from the stops. I'm prepared to
write this one off as just a quirk of the design, but I'm just not sure,
and the condition of some of the suspension is a bit questionable, like the
adjusting bolts at the top of the left strut tower that are stripped. I
have not done anything to them because the alignment seems to be okay, and
it hasn't moved as far as I can tell. On the other hand, the alignment
might not be the greatest either, because it tends to drift to the left
slightly, although the tires aren't showing any weird wear patterns after
3kmi.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions regarding the two above. Thanks.
Nick Aronoff
Re: vibration and steering[ALL/1998] posted by Mark Klein on
Sunday, 17 August 1997, at 8:22 p.m.
The driveshaft should have two, hard to see, arrows engraved/peened into it on each side of the splined junction. These need to line up in the installed position.
Don't know about the steering not returning. Are all the tie rod ends and ball joints free and not binding?
Re: vibration and steering[ALL/1998] posted by Gilbert Kirk on
Monday, 18 August 1997, at 8:30 a.m.
Nick -
Have you checked the ball joints on the control arms? I replaced the
ones on my 1980 GLE recently, as the car had a pretty bad case of the
shakes at around 30 - 35 mph. Cleared the problem right up.
But not cheaply. The 2 ball joints ran me $80 for aftermarket.
Also, what about the big rubber bushings on the aft end of the cont-
rol arms? It might not be a bad idea to replace these. I could only
find them at the dealer.
Re: vibration and steering[ALL/1998] posted by Owen Woodland on
Monday, 18 August 1997, at 11:52 p.m.
I had similar steering wobbles, drifts etc on my 1976, around 40, 60 and
80 kmh (what's that, about 25, 35 and 50 miles an hour), replaced
* Control arm balljoints (on bottom of struts)
* Tie rod ends (balljoints on end of steering tie rod)
* Control arm bushes (as mentioned by someone else in replies, at the back
of the "wishbone" control arm)
* Sway bar link bushes (anti roll bar)
* Sway bar bushes
* Got new tyres and an alignment
Cleared all of the steering problems up quite nicely, but it was quite
expensive. All of these parts (barring tyres, which I assume you've checked)
contribute to the steering wobbles when they wear (far less relevant are the
sway bar items, but I replaced them for good measure), so on an oldish car
they could all be contributing.....
Re: vibration and steering[ALL/1998] posted by Nick Aronoff on
Thursday, 21 August 1997, at 11:55 a.m.
I heard that there is some kind of alignment necessary when installing the D.S. center support bearing. When I put the new one in, I had a local auto-parts store press it on, then I just stuffed it back into the rubber donut and re-mounted it. Does anyone know anything about "aligning" this?
Thanks,
Nick