[TR] Shaking TR3

[Jerry Van Vlack]

At the end of the day I think that you'll find that it's the wire wheels. 
Can you find someone who does on the car balancing? That may improve things 
a bit. I'd also suggest trying a set of solid wheels and tires. I must 
caution however that you don't get much stud and bolt engagement (thread 
length) doing that and then driving up to 60mph is risky. That and you don't 
know how well they are balance either but if you noticed a change it could 
steer you in the right direction.

I changed from wires to Panasports on my 4A and 29 years of vibration and 
shaking disappeared. My wire were old however but they were maintained.

JVV
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "William Brewer" <wsb1960tr3a at att.net>
To: "Triumphs" <triumphs at autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 5:20 PM
Subject: [TR] Shaking TR3


>     So the entire time I have driven my TR3A (19 years) I have been trying 
> to
> get it to ride smoother, especially in the front end. It is very smooth to
> about 45 mph and then it gets shaking and wobbly from 45 to about 60 or so 
> and
> then smooths out again. The car has been a rolling restoration and things 
> have
> been changed out and upgraded continually. It has new rear springs with 
> solid
> bushings, new wheels and balanced tires from British Wire Wheel, R&P 
> steering,
> new trunnions, shocks, urethane upper A-arm bushings, new upper A-arm 
> mounts,
> ball joints, new lower bushings, alignment, more wheel balancing, steering
> column bushings. Nothing has proven to be the silver bullet. The only 
> thing I
> haven't changed out or checked recently is the wheel bearings themselves 
> or
> maybe the shocks and shock bushings (although they look fine to me). I am
> thinking of putting a dial indicator on the wheel hub and wheels to 
> measure
> runout. I may check the rear wheel
> alignment, but I bet there is
> nothing wrong with it.
>     ISTR some
> Australian website where the guy made a welded steel frame to reinforce 
> the
> firewall to minimize cowl flex. That seems a little extreme and 
> unnecessary.
>
>   I can't imagine that they rode this rough when new. Back in the 50's 
> with
> the American land yacht cars rolling down the road it seems like people 
> would
> have expected a smoother ride out of a new Triumph.
>     Among other things,
> I do flight test data acquisition systems. I've been crazy enough that I 
> have
> thought about setting up a labjack system (http://labjack.com) to measure
> acceleration, but the accelerometers  are too expensive (the cheapest are
> about $500 apiece). Maybe I can borrow some from work...
>     Any other ideas?
> I may borrow another TR3 that was recently ground-up restored to see if it
> rides better.
>     ISTR threads on this in the past.
>
>     -Bill in
> Tehachapi