23 shimmy

[Guest ktm858]

I am new to Model T's and I have a 23 fordor that has a shimmy when im going. I was told that the radius arm or wishbone ball could be worn. I checked it and you can slighty move it if you shake the arm. Could someone tell me how tight this should be?

[Guest tmodelman]

Front wheel shimmy is caused by loose components in the front end. To address this, jack up the front end with both wheels off the ground and inspect looseness.

Grasp each wheel individually and shake it while looking at bearing looseness and king pin movement , many times the king pin is worn and that is a main source of shimmy. Sometimes the front wheel bearings need to be tightened up.

The wishbone must be snug at the ball joint under the crankcase, and check the special cone shaped nuts under the axle to wishbone at the perch, these can be loose or the wishbone socket joint at the perch can be worn egg shape. If the wishbone ball is egg shape and wiggles in the crankcase socket, then that can be a cause of shimmy. Then check the pitman arms and steering link ends, the caps there must be snug. You can file down the caps to make the joint tighter.

And check the spring perch shackles, these must be free for up and down action.

Lastly check the front spring mount at the front of the engine, that clamp must be tight so that the front spring can't wiggle in the crossmember.

All can cause the shimmy and quite often its a combination of two or more.<!--/text-->

[Guest ktm858]

Thanks for the advice I will do what you said.