[Silly Little Cars] Front end

[Bryan Lowe]

I have a Hyundai powered Interceptor 2.  It is my daily driver, and has racked up about 5000 miles in the past year, give or take.   It's my daily commute vehicle, and it's been an RV of sorts, taking me out camping.

I developed a problem where the front end was hopping a bit, so ended up replacing the front tire, a process I will outline below.    The new tire totally changed the ride, and all is smooth now.  But I do have a front end shimmy.  There is a fair amount of play in the steering and the shimmy will be noticeable at speeds above about 30.  There is a click in each direction if I move the steering wheel back and forth.  Slop.   I wonder if that is in the steering greats in the silver ratio box... or whatever you'd call that thing.  WHen I had the front end jacked up I didn't detect any slop in the head tube, I guess you'd call it.  That seems OK.  

Any thoughts?

For those thinking of replacing the front tire, here's what I did. 

First off, two tire places didn't want to work on it for me.   I jacked up the front end with a floor jack.  I put a log underneath the frame too, in case the vehicle slipped off the jack. I had a neighbor killed when his car fell off the jack stands.  

Then, you take a careful look.. maybe even a picture.. to remember how it was all held together.

Remove the two nuts at the end of each tube in the front end.  They hold on the caps that hold the front axle stub in place.

Oh wait, you figure out that you can't really remove the front wheel system with the front brake calipers in place, so you remove the two bolts holding that in place.

Oh wait, you figure out that you have to remove the disc brake in order to remove the caliper.  The disc brake is help on with four lug type bolts.

OK, NOW you angle the disc rotor thereby releasing the front caliper.  Then, you can pull the wheel down.  It didn't just fall down in my case, as I had predicted.

I took the wheel and axle mechanism to the tire store, as the lug nuts were torqued on pretty well.

Come back, slide the front wheel mechanism in place, holding it up a little higher with something like a 2by4.  You've already slid the disc rotor back onto the axle, and slip the brake calipers back into place as you do it.  You don't want to let the whole hting hang by the brake hose, so do what you need to get the wheel propped up and/or the front end lowered back down a bit.  Tighten the rotor bolts finger tight for now.. but DON'T forget to fully tighten them later.

Place the axle stub back into the slots at the end of the two fork tubes... the slide the caps back on and loosely tighten the nuts.

This allows you to make sure the allignment of the brake rotor is right.  It will drag a bit, in my experience, but you can slide the axle stub back and forth a tiny bit anyway.

Then, tighten the four nuts that hold the end caps on.   Never let one get too much tighter than the others.  Just rotate between the four as you tighten them up.

I didnt have a torque wrench, so I just tightened them as hard as I could.. within reason.

Then, I lowered the car back onto the tire, and then FULLY tightened the rotor bolts.. al four of them.  When it's in the air it's too hard to really cynch these things down.   Roll the beast back and forth to be sue you get good access to tighten all four of the bolts.   

Check everything again.   Test the brake a couple of times.  You still do have brake pressure, right?

Now go around the block.   Test the brakes before you need them.

Finally, after you take a trip of a few blocks, check all those bolts again.   When I was a kid I had the handlebars fall off an old Lambretta scooter I was riding.   Now that is scary.

OK... take a real drive and admire your handiwork.

That all worked for me, but let me know if you feel I missed anything.

Bryan
Seattle