As anyone try installing a steering damper on there minitruck ? Mine is a Suzuki Carry 1990 apparently with a 1996 mechanic. I'm trying to resolve a shimmy problem and can't find the source. I'm thinking a steering damper might help.
most of the time a steering dampner will only cover up a problem. in the short view it will "fix" what i giving you a shimmy, but it is only covering up what is wrong until the problem gets bigger. these trucks ship from the factory with no steering dampner, and having to add one tell me that something is wrong... you didn't mention some vital info here... lift kit? wider rims? larger tires? some of the things that will affect your steering are: camber caster toe in / out worn tie rod ends worn struts tire balance tire wear worn struts and look around for any loose steering components... have someone get in the truck and mover the steering wheelback and forth while you get underneath it and look for something moving that shouldn't be.
It started to shimmy a bit after I went to the used car part lot to find the 14" rims. The guy lifted the front of the truck to see if the wheels fitted. He must of caught something with the jack. Before that no shimmy. Going back on the street after that it had just un hint... I just bought the thing so I'm not yet used to all it's little things. He must have touched a steering rod that put the geometry out of wack. By the way it's all stock... No lift... The new rims are 5,5" wide, 14" tall. Thanks...
Have you tried to put your old rims back on to see if the shimmy goes away??? Could be a pooched rim/ bad center.
Right after I thought the front end would fall apart, I put the 12" rims back on. There is still a little bit of shimmy but at a higher speed. But much less than with the 14". Let's say 90 km/h. Today I had the 14" wheels rebalanced. But just before taking them in I checked the air pressure in them. Turns out one had a slow leak. They fixed that and before rebalancing them they checked to see if they were ok... Well I think none of them were. In avrage they were one once off. Now they are back one the truck and it's much better. But still shakes at aroud 85 km/h. When I go over that it stops. When I slow down, coming to that same speed, it starts up again. I've got the specs for the alignment. I'm still wondering if it would help. I checked all the rods under the front end and didn't find any damage. By the way... I checked the real speed with the GPS and the speedo and the GPS are now about the same.
it may be hard to prove... but not a bad idea. i've been scratching my head trying to think of what he could have done by jacking it up though? i have heard that using an impact will warp the wheel hubs and that's why they suggest doing it with a torque wrench. and once you warp the wheel hub it will vibrate. typically when it only vibrates at a certain speed it balance issue, but you have addressed that. i would think it's a warped wheel hub or tie rod end of some sort. a tie rod end may feel tight if you are just grabbing at it.. but what you really need to do is have someone inside the truck turning the wheel about a quarter turn each direction just back and forth and watch the steering components underneath and look for any flex, give or slop. good luck milt
Like Mighty said.. Difficult to prove and I checked all the rods and can't see any damage. I just came back from another garage to have the 14" rebalanced. One was off by 0.25 once. The rest were ok. He rechecked everything and couldn't find any problem. He was having a ball trying to put this little car on the lift... Couldn't stop laughing... Driving back home the shimmy was gone !! Or almost non excistant. I don't know what to think of all that. I feel like taking everything back and buy new mags and tires. At least I'll start with parts that "should" be good. I didn't want to put to much money on it at the same time, but it's proving to be a big pain... I'll keep you guys posted...
