cowl shake

[Jim]

I was talking to a person who wants to buy a Reatta convertible and one of them he tried had a pretty bad shake at about 30 MPH.

I have had several convertibles and have not noticed much shake on any of them but when I did experience it on one of mine it was at about 50 MPH on a good road.

My question is, when and at what speed does the cowl shake manifest itself in the convertibles?

[Guest Ranger]

Jim,

My red one has a slight cowl shake between 51 & 53,

my black one has a slight cowl shake between 52 & 54.

Both have 17" wheels and read approx. 5% lower than actual speed.

Jim Too

[DAVES89]

Don't tell Ralph Nader. He'll write another book "Unsafe at somewhat specific speeds." <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> It would probably force GM to halt production of the Reatta. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

[padgett]

Need to be sure that the cocktail shakers are in place.

[Barney Eaton]

The Reatta convertible never had the "cocktail shakers" At one of the Reatta meetings, one person associated with the Reatta indicated that they did go to a junk yard and purchased some from a Corvair or Firebird but they did not help, plus they had a problem with finding room for them.

[padgett]

They say the memory is the second thing to go and I forget what's first.

[Guest crtnrds]

My '90 shakes a bit when I hit bumpy roads especially in turns but 16" wheels & new struts(Sensatracs) helped some. I know I need control arm bushings but haven't had a chance to replace them yet. I suppose thet will help a little to. Once I have replaced them I'll try to improve it further. I believe it's a combination of several things, none of which will eliminate it entirely as converts are inherently less rigid for obvious reasons. I had a Miata wihch shook alot more without the hard top on.

[Guest TommyH]

i cant figure this out!

WHAT IS A COWL AND WHY DOES IT SHAKE!!

pix are nice too

[padgett]

a) cowling: The top portion of the front part of an automobile body, supporting the windshield and dashboard.

"shakes" when the body experiences harmonic disturbances.

Convertibles, having less torsional rigidity than coupes since all structure is in a plane, tend to experience harmonics at lower frequencies and with less energy than coupes. Going over a double set of railroad tracks often makes shake noticable.

[Reatta45]

(1)COWL; That is what BatMan wears, to protect his true identity.

(2)SHAKE; Is what he dose when the super villains threaten ? <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

[Guest F14CRAZY]

Tommy: as Padgett explained, in short, the "cowl shake" is the dashboard shaking in a convertible

[Booreatta]

My 90 convertible does not have any shake that I have noticed, it is very smooth, my coupe seems to have a little cowl shake but the 2 cars seem to perform in a very simular way. The hard plastic dash part next to the windshield has cracked on the coupe but the convertible seems solid. I do have one question, what is a cocktail shaker? Can anyone post a photo, this is not the first time this has come up and I would like to know just what it is....