Alright looked through the forums and couldn't find much. My steering wheel shakes. It shakes when I am driving regularly at pretty much any speed, and it goes crazy when I am braking, (especially down from 110)ahahah. Well anyways it shakes horrible when I am braking. I know the first thing is the alignment but this almost seems like something is loose in the front end. Any ideas?

Frankenstein Z

well the braking issue could be caused by warped rotors. stepping on the brakes with this situation would transfer the shimmy to the steering wheel.

Have you removed the wheel and grease hub to check the nut that holds the hub assembly together? Should have a cotter pin through the castlelated nut and the nut should be snug but not tight enough to inhibit wheel rotation.

Some other things I would be going through are the bushings on the control arm, sway bar, strut tower bolts, ball joints tie rod ends, the through bolts for the front cross member, even the steering coupler.

Sounds to me like worn ball joints, tie rod ends are the most likely culprit for the shake while driving. It will be even more pronounced if the brake rotors are worn out of true even slightly, as the steering has play in it to begin with.

I'd check the tie rods, ball joints, steering rack bushings first. See if this is causing the shake while driving (it could be also in the wheel bearings, tire and/or wheels as well) and if you fix the shake except under braking you will know you need to do some brake rotor/caliper repairs as well.

It's probably best to fix one part at a time. It could be in the steering which can be fixed rather easily without tearing too much apart. If it cures the problem, you can save yourself the aggravation of having replaced a lot of parts without knowing for sure where the problem was originally.

the shaking is caused from warped rotors. I had bad shaking like yours when braking and i took it in to have the brakes looked at first. The culprit was indeed very warped rotors. Had them replaced and it took about 85 percent of the shaking away. I also had the steering rack bushings replaced and it tightened it up very nicely. Now my steering wanders a bit still but I am planning on replacing both ball joints, outer tie rods ends and TR bushings. that should take away all the shaking!

First thing I would do is rotate your tires from front to rear and see if anything changes! While you have the fronts off look at the rotors. You want to look for dark spots on them or strange wear patterns. They are probably warped but that wouldn't cause a vibration while just driving down the road. That could be an old tire that is out of round, a bent rim, wheels/tires that need to be balanced.

If rotating the tires doesn't move your vibration from the steering wheel to the seat then it could very well be steering rack or tie rods.

Has anyone suggested checkin the air in the tyres to se if it is the same on both sides?????

Could be a wheel out of balance or even out of shape - swap them over as Royce suggested.

biker

I can't change the tires, because the rear are smoother than usual. But I am going to check the rotors today. Will let you know how it went.

Thanks

Frankenstein Z

Don't mean to take the tires off the rim. Just swap the rear wheels/tires with the front. You don't have to leave it that way for long, just long enough to determine if the front tires/wheels are contributing to the problem.

Have fun!

It has been over a month and I was wondering if the tires were the problem?? I have the same shake when breaking and I am driving a 70 Z that was stored fro 15 years.

just another thing to try . Jack up the front wheel and loosen the luggnuts just loose then retighten the luggnuts with the tire off the ground. lower and tork to spec and see if that helps . It helped on my '73

Hate to say but I haven't started yet. My little z has been keeping me busy with other things. It busted a bolt on the thermostat so thats my current project. I look at it this week.

Thanks for the input by the way I appreciate it.

Frankenstein Z

my 280z steering wheel shakes starting at speed of 50mph. if i do 80 or 90, it become stable again. any ideas? could it be the wheels unbalanced?