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Rear End Wobble @ 60mph and up???

M

Mac

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
179
Location
Highlands Ranch, Colorado
no more than a week ago i replaced the rear sway bar end links and the rear control arms as mine were twisted and bent! after replacing them, i took the car to get a 4-wheel alignment and after i got it back i started noticing that the rear end would wobble back an forth and as it wobbles it gets worse untill you slow down...

so i took it back and i had them re-do the alignment as my car had never felt so loose in the back and has NEVER wobbled... so they had another guy do it and since i'm running KYB struts with B&G springs (has only been on the car since right at the start of summer) he got the rear as close as he could to spec, it's not off by much and i'm assuming the rear was already the same after i did the suspension install..

so after getting the car back, it seemed a little better all though it still wobbled on the high way, so needless to say i checked my tire pressure, everything was good, tried rotation the tires, ended up getting 2 new tires and having them all re-balanced, and nothing is helping it..

now my question is, what could be causing this? i was first thinking maybe when i replaced the rear sway endlinks and rear control arms that i might have tightened the bolt for the sway endlinks to tight so there isn't any movement to adjust the sway bar correctly, or maybe my rear struts have gone bad, but i wouldn't believe it if they were since this wobbled didn't start off not that bad and get worse, everything was perfect before the alignment and after a wobble..

i donno but i'm eager to fix whatever is going on as my car feels so loose, handling wise in the rear!:mad:

PS maybe when alignment was being done, the mechanic didn't tighten everything up in the rear all the way? :shrug:


any help would be great, Thanks,

-Mac
 
Bump for anyone that has even 1 thought on this? it's really annoying and before i start taking apart the rear end and replacing parts that really don't need to be replaced i would like to have a little input on some things to check out first or tighten up or somethin...

thanks

-Mac
 
Perhaps when everything was tightened it put more stress on the sway bar mounts and one tab could have broken off? Have you crawled under and looked at everything?
 
yeah when i got it back from the shop after they re-did the 4-wheel alignment, i looked at the parts that i had replaced to make sure everything was still good, and it was... what would it feel like if the rear struts were shot? would it wobble like that or would it just be really bouncy?

-Mac
 
Mac said:
...what would it feel like if the rear struts were shot? would it wobble like that or would it just be really bouncy?
Click to expand...

When I bought my 'tour the rear struts were shot. It drove fine but felt like every single bump was a 6" curb taken at full speed. There was no rear-end wobble. Are you sure you don't have a broken strut spring that would change suspensiuon response from side-to-side?
 
i don't think so... i'm guessing your talking about the actual springs, which are B&G springs and they are just as new as all 4 struts, like less than 10K on them and i've only had them for like 6 months so i would be totally surprised if one of the rear springs was broken... not to mention all the strut/spring assy mounts were replaced when the suspensions was overhauled, like i said 6 months ago..

i'm really starting to get pissed off since i can't figure out what this could be when i just replaced a bunch of new rear suspension parts that were shot before i replaced them, which to me would only make the rear suspension better, not worse!!!

If anyone has ANY advice or suggestions, please share as i'm going to go insane if i don't figure this out..

thanks, Mac
 
If you are referring to wobble at speed going dead straight on a relatively flat piece of highway, start looking at wheels tires. Why were the previous parts twisted and bent/no detail there, could have big effect on your trouble. Stabilizer bar has ZERO effect when car going straight and no lean from side to side. Meaning you could disconnect both ends, wire it up out of the way and drive again to test, just don't be stupid and corner hard like that. Dead straight no wobble travel requires non bent wheels, good balanced low wear tires and rear tires in track with fronts. Take a simple piece of stout string and shoot a line off the back wheels to the fronts while front wheels turned straight ahead to determine if rears out of track with the fronts. Jack rear wheels up and spin them to check for bent.

Are you dead sure the wobble not from the front? Sounds like problem started with rear end work though.

FWD cars should be piece of cake to figure out rear troubles since the rear like a trailer, just follows the front and tracks into line as front pulls it straight. I have seen crappy tires cause wobble even though balanced. If tire deformed out of round will wobble even if in perfect balance. That will show up on the rear tire/wheel rollaround check too. Grab each wheel assembly and manhandle it around, there should be no looseness up/down or sideways to allow for the wobble to occur.
 
Based on everything you've tried, I'd look at wheel bearings. Otherwise, I'd start going back through things, because you may have missed something. Bent wheels, bad bushings, etc.
 
Rara said:
Based on everything you've tried, I'd look at wheel bearings. Otherwise, I'd start going back through things, because you may have missed something. Bent wheels, bad bushings, etc.
Click to expand...

Actually i was just thinking about the wheel bearings today... now, when i did the suspension overhaul about 6-7 months ago, i did end up replacing the whole drivers rear hub with bearing because the old one was bad, so do you think maybe the other side has gone bad and maybe the fronts as well? or maybe even though one of the rear wheel bearings is new, it could have worn out both of the rears?? the only thing i don't get though is that when i took the car to get the 4-wheel alignment, i didn't have that wobble, it was only after i got the alignment, which caused me to go back the next day and have it re-done and it still didn't make a difference, so it's not like there was a wearing out period that i noticed before hand, it was just all of a sudden!

i guess my next question is, how do i check the wheel bearings to see if they are bad? might be a noob questions but i've never checked or replaced wheel bearings on any of my cars except the one hub on my svt that had the wheel bearing all ready..

thanks, Mac
 
ok so i'm not sure if it's the wheel bearings going or gone bad, because the car wouldn't wobble like it does even with the worst wheel bearings... i'm starting to lean more towards a leak in one or both of the rear struts, or maybe all of them, i donno, hoping not since i just installed these KYB's with B&G Springs no more than like 8,000 miles ago, but i guess we will see!

By any chance if anybody thinks o something to check out or if your just now reading this, what did you do when or if you had this problem?

really need help as it seems to be getting worse, and i don't really know how to test the struts or wheel bearings, although someone here said that when their struts were shot it felt like every little bump was a 6'' curb, it's not like that for me... the rebound seems to be fine, it's just so loose feeling in the rear and sometimes just the whole car feels loose....

thanks for everybody who has chimed in on this for me, and please post if you have a thought as to the solution or something to check out...

-Mac
 
I was actually going to ask if you could post up what the shop set the alignment to. If it was fine before hand and then had problems afterwards, the obvious place to look is at what changed, in this case the alignment.
 
Shock invisible until you hit bump/hole. Meaning if you are on level road and fairly smooth shock is not the problem. Bearing bad will be loose when wheel jacked up in air if loose enough to wobble. Grab wheel and work it around, don't be a pussy about it. I'm kinda leaning toward crappy shop work also. I see so many cars around here going down road sideways it's damn obviously someone lining up cars has not a clue..............alignment machine only as good as guy working it.

Not that hard as I do all mine with string, level and angle finder, all 4 cars track and run dead straight and that's after front end rebuilds.
 
Yeah, from the description, it sounds to me most like toe out on the rear, either from being badly set, or from loose or bent suspension bits, or a really sloppy wheel bearing.
 
ya i'm going to scan the alignment sheet i got after i took the car back to have the shop re-do the alignment so everyone can look at it. i wish it were as simple as just putting the alignment back to what it was prior to the alignments but the reason i ended up taking it to get an alignment in the first place was because both rear tires (less than 3 months old) were almost completely worn down on the inside of each rear tire, almost like the tires were canted outwards from the bottom like you would expect when lowering the car, but worse...
 
turns out the problem is my rear subframe, it's so rusted and weak/Brittle that it needs to be replaced.. it's causing almost the whole rear suspension to have alot of play and cause the wobbling i was feeling...

Now i just need to find a rear subframe... called Tousley Ford and they have it for $155 + shipping, so i'm gonna see if i can find somebody who has one tht i can get for cheaper!

Suggestions on finding a rear subframe in decent to good condition or less than $100?

thanks, Mac
 
Mac, did you change the subframe and did it help? ( please update )

AMC49.. I'm an old hand with fords, I have to do some work on my buddy's contour and i'd like to check his alignment to see who messed up what part of it. any tips/links for the string/level/angle finder techniques would be greatly appreciated.

much obliged.
 
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