Oscillation trepidation !

[Dave Mann]

I had this problem 40 years ago on a recently acquired RN saloon, on stripping the drag link down I found that the truncated conical spacers behind the springs were missing, once replacements were fitted the problem has never re-occurred.
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[andrew34ruby]

Hmmm. My seven had 2 occurrences of this steering shimmy this week. It's never done it before. On checking I found nothing wrong. What next?

[Hugh Barnes]

My earlier post where I talked about renewing the drag link springs which resolved the problem. There was no sign of anything amiss with the ones fitted, seemingly, but new ones did the trick

[Robert Leigh]

I have found that wobbly king pins where the axle eyes have stretched give this problem. It can be checked by tightening the king pin cotters if there is any wobble. The permanent cure in this situation is to get the eyes shrunk.

[Jeff Taylor]

I have found that wobbly king pins where the axle eyes have stretched give this problem. It can be checked by tightening the king pin cotters if there is any wobble. The permanent cure in this situation is to get the eyes shrunk.

Andrew,
If your axle eyes have indeed stretched, then Ruairidh Dunford (Alba Austins) will be able to shrink them for you.

[Dave Wortley]

I had this happen 2 months ago. It was caused by loose u bolts holding front road spring to the chassis. Previously it happened when I was going to night school in about 1967 as I approached a road junction. Unfortunately a policeman was standing at the junction and looked quite alarmed. I said something like “they all do that” and no further action was taken. It was probably drag link springs on that occasion.

[robert regan]

chassis shimmy can be and is quite terrifying and independent front suspension is no protection from it the Americans call it "death wobble", there are dozens of examples of it on youtube its nearly always caused by wear in your front suspension or steering gear and usually happens after hitting a pothole or bump in the road , its happened to me in an xk120 jaguar at 40 to 50 mph then you know why they call it death wobble !, regards to all Rob.