I recently developed a fairly violent front-end shimmy (aka "death wobble"). My cruiser has in the past exhibited varying degrees of steering wheel shake, usually depending on how long since my Cooper STTs had been rotated and/or rebalanced.
This time it was much worse (actually violent around 40-45mph. If I drove through that speed range quickly, it could seem as though it went away, but it just never got a chance to fully develop. Nonetheless, I checked wheel bearing preloads - even going as far as replacing bearings on the LHS (passenger for my HDJ81), but no bueno.
My STTs were near end of life, so I had them replaced yesterday. Shake still appeared (albeit slightly less violently today I pulled both wheels and took a closer look, and spotted it - a crack along the entire perimeter of the panhard bar mount. Not at the weld, but in the bracket itself.
Seems likely the culprit. I'll get my fabricator buddy to tig it up as my home is noy wired for my 3-phase Miller welder.
Whaddya experts think...have I found the issue?
This time it was much worse (actually violent around 40-45mph. If I drove through that speed range quickly, it could seem as though it went away, but it just never got a chance to fully develop. Nonetheless, I checked wheel bearing preloads - even going as far as replacing bearings on the LHS (passenger for my HDJ81), but no bueno.
My STTs were near end of life, so I had them replaced yesterday. Shake still appeared (albeit slightly less violently today I pulled both wheels and took a closer look, and spotted it - a crack along the entire perimeter of the panhard bar mount. Not at the weld, but in the bracket itself.
Seems likely the culprit. I'll get my fabricator buddy to tig it up as my home is noy wired for my 3-phase Miller welder.
Whaddya experts think...have I found the issue?
