wheel wiggle

[Vancevr]

just wondering if it is usual that the wheels and tires wiggle on my 29' chummy. not a big question but worth knowing.

[Peter Clayton]

WIGGLE? You will have to give more detail. Are all the wheels wiggling?,  Is this occurring at any/ all speeds? , On the road or if spun when on axle stands/jack?. Are wheels tight? ,no loose wheel nuts. Are wheel bearings slack/worn?. Any loose/broken spokes ?. Tyre pressures too high/low? Any play in steering linkage or king pin bushes? Come back with answers and someone will help I'm sure.

[Hedd_Jones]

does it wear tyres?

Sort the toe in. Fixed wheel wiggle on daughtets car

[Chris KC]

It's not unusual for wheels to be slightly out of true. Hard to define limits of acceptability.

[Howard Wright]

Hi

Have you tried jacking up each wheel in turn?  Grasping top and bottom and trying to rock the wheel will tell you if there is any play in the bearings or kingpins.  If all is well there, spin the wheel with a block of wood on the ground next to the tyre.  That will give you an indication of how out of true the wheel is. Follow that up with mounting a dial gauge touching on the rim.  When re-spoking wheels you should aim to get less than an 1/8” out of true. (Note the tyres may be more as they are often not true on the rim).

Hard to say how much out of true becomes problematic as out of balance wheels don’t normally have an affect until over 50 mph.

Cheers

Howard

[Colin Morgan]

Yes, there are a few ways that they can 'wiggle'... as mentioned above...

With the wheels off the ground:

1. When the wheel is spun - if it is out of true, as Howard says.
2. When grabbed and rocked back and fro vertically with the brakes off - wiggle shows wear in the kingpins.
3. When grabbed and rocked back and fro vertically with the brakes on - wiggle shows any wear in the bearings.
4. When grabbed horizontally and shaken intelligently - reveals play in the various steering joints, if any. 

One time I grabbed a front wheel on a car that had been laid up for a long time - there was a lot of wiggle in all directions - it didn't feel right - turned out the hub and bearings had been damaged in a heavy collision - another wheel had been fitted so the  car could be rolled about, but it would not have been safe on the road.