I had work done at 914ltd when I bought a 1971 original paint car last year. Drove it home with Fuchs and wide tires, no problem...

But who doesn't love steelies?



So I had Coker Tire Michelins mounted on the original newly painted steel rims and...70 mph shimmy. Steering wheel vibration was making me nuts. My tire guy, I subsequently found out, used hub centric balancing. That means they put the middle of the wheel on the machine and do the balancing.

I spoke with Brad at 914ltd and he said sometimes the wheel is not properly centered when mounted by the four lugs. The early wheels do not have a central rim for centering the tire and even though the lugs seem to center the wheel just fine, the small amount out of round can make a difference. He said raise the car and look for an eccentricity in the wheel, which I did, and I didn't see anything out of whack.

So, I found the only shop in town which does Road Force Balancing, apparently a term for a Hunter brand machine balancer. Somehow matches the tire to the rim and reproduces the force of the road rather than just spinning in air. And they can rotate the tire on the rim to produce the best match of tire to rim. Each wheel/tire combo had a number assigned to it, in my case from 2 to 17 and the low numbered wheels should be placed up front and the highest one to be used as a spare.

Meanwhile, I put the Fuchs back on while they were doing the Road Force thing and had the same shimmy, so I was thinking something was wrong with the front end.

Get the tires back, and still with the shimmy. I subsequently found out that his Hunter machine only does hub centric even though a lug centric device exists, where they put four spikes through the lug holes when they balance the tires and it might be a bit more accurate.

OK, to make this long story short, I read on a previous thread here about jacking the car up in the front, then rotating the wheel by hand while it is barely hovering off the garage floor. Find the "high spot" when the slightly eccentric wheel rubs on the ground. Rotate it 180 degrees so the high spot is on top, loosen the lugs, then carefully retighten. The wheel will drop slightly from gravity. Rotate again and make sure the wheel does not rub on the ground.

I would imagine one could loosen the lugs where the wheel was rubbing, lower the car a bit and retighten. Probably achieve the same thing.

Anyway, I did that and the vibration/shimmy was absolutely, totally gone, like I had a new car! Brad was right, I just didn't know how best to determine that my wheel was a bit off kilter.

Hope this helps someone.

Paul

You can also throw a couple ounces of air soft pellets in the tire when it’s being mounted and it will balance itself as you drive. No weights needed.

The steel wheels give these cars a '70s VW look.

Clean and cool, if that's your thing.

The '71 is fairly original and I thought the skinny tires and steel wheels would enhance the "vintage" driving experience. A 2.0 motor with the original D-Jet on top of it makes for a powerful little car, quite enjoyable. But more squirrelly at 80mph than my Fuchs/wide tire 1974. It's just a lighter feeling car.

Paul

That why the front end changed in 1973, Hub centric rotors cleaned up this problem.

Just a thought. I had a similar shimmy in my front end while driving. I replaced the tie rod ends and it fixed it completely.

It can be one of many things or a couple things. These cars are almost 50 years old.

Shouldn’t feel squirrelly. Alignment might help.

Actually, I should say "lighter." The 74 has a more road grabbing feel to it. I have no problem driving the 71 at modern highway speeds but with the skinnier tires, a slightly higher ride height, lack of sway bars, etc. the road feel is different.

The car was just aligned front and rear. I'm loving it!

Paul

I thought you were referring to fabric softener till I looked up. Sorry, turned out to be something else. .....