RobK

You should be able to tell by either looking at them on the car, or trying to see if there is any vertical play. Granted, they'll usually center with the lugs, but that's less than ideal. It's usually more of an issue on wheels that are intended for multiple makes/models/years.

70MACH1OWNER

Hey Jess,
Went out in the freez'n figgin'n cold and change back to the stock wheels and tires. Both the stocker and the Steeda Pentars have couterbores on the mating surface of the rim to clear the clips you spoke of. I guess I am not sure that is my problem. I did remove the clips from all 4 rotors but have not taken a long enough drive yet to make any determination. You guys that have the FR500 wheels or the Foose wheels. Does your wheels "NOT" have the counterbores to clear the clips like mine??? You can see in the pictures where the clips are cleared by the c'bores. I yanked and pulled on everything on the front suspension and it all is tight. I guess my next thing to try will be a good front end alignment to see if that fixes the issue. Anymore ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks Scott

blkstang06

Hey! Old man Buckeye, did you check to see if you had those rotor keepers on! I was hoping you checked! Its a little cold here today! I would rather you freeze your butt off to find out if thats the problem!........

70MACH1OWNER

Check my last post. Yes, I checked you wuss. Go out and be a man!! At least the beer stays cold!!

blkstang06

Scott I'm pretty sure my FR500's are counterbored too after looking at yours! and after looking at your pics I remember those clips!

blkstang06

I only paid 200.00 bucks a wheel for the FR500's. If I would have purchased those Fancy Pantsy Steeda's I'd be out there in the cold too! Man I don't know? I don't see how those clips could cause the problem with the wheel counterbored! My wheels and tires where supposedly balanced on one of those HAL9000 Super Duper balancing machines!

70MACH1OWNER

Mine too... Steeda calls it "Road Forced Balanced" I think that means they put pressure against the tire while it is being balance to make it act like it is on the road or something like that. Bottomline.... I got a shimmy. And it not the kind us guys like!!! BTW, I guess I have a more expense shimmy than you.
Scott

blkstang06

I always noticed a minor shimmy with the Flat Rock 17's but it is more pronounced now! Whats the odds of both of us having this problem! maybe the tow is a little out! from the factory ! don't know but I'm going to friggin find out!

70MACH1OWNER

I drove mine to work this morning with the stockers back on and only noticed a slight shimmy for the first couple of miles than it went away. Looks like I can't get in to the alignment guy until next week sometime. He is a local guy that is well known by all the hot rodders in the area for the quality of his work. I don't want to run it thru a local tire store. The last time I did that the steering wheel was straight when I took it in and turning 10 degrees to the left when I picked it up. I can wait for it to be done right. I will let you know if it fixes the issue.
Scott

97svtgoin05gt

I've got this issue guys, and I just had my tires rotated and balanced. I took the car out of the parking lot of the shop and within 2 minutes I realized it's still there. I saw the guy day before yesterday and told him I'd be back becuase the shimmy is still there. This sounds like there may be more to it than what meets the eye. The one thing I do know is that before I took off the factory wheels, I had what I believed to be a balance issue. I had the concept rims and I took it back to the dealer. They rebalanced them and everything was fine. Once other people started complaining about this, I figured the Flat Rock balancer was out of calibration and probably most were going to have the problem. Well, I took those concepts off and put on the 17" bullits with stock tires and I feel it. The rotation/balance seems to have changed the MPH at which it occurs, but it's there. I'll be interested to see if we can pin this down. It is quite annoying. I've felt this before and it was warped rotors. I can't imagine this is the situation here.

70MACH1OWNER

Stay in touch!! That's the beauty of this forum. We can find the problem and work this out by sharing all of our information together. I also thought mine was a balance issue but not on 2 different sets of wheels and tires that were done on different machines. I don't buy it.
Scott

RobK

Has anyone checked their wheel bearings? With the wheel off the ground grab the top and bottom of the tire and see if you get any movement at all. If you do, you've got trouble.

70MACH1OWNER

I did check mine yesterday when I changed back to the stock wheels and tires. I yanked and pulled on everything up there and found nothing loose at all.
Scott

Want to add this. The car sat at work today for about 9 hours before I went home. It was about 38 degrees here today. When I left the shop the car shimmyed pretty bad for about a mile or so then stopped. I drove the car at highway speeds for about 20 miles and it was steady as a rock. This is with the stockers back on. This has always been my issue with these rims and tires. It starts out shimmying than goes away. How's that????????
Scott

blkstang06

No Shimmy once the tires are warm?

Fman67

I have had three different wheel /tire combos on my car...car shimmyed when i got it new...and still does. I have Factory Fanblades/BFG's on it now...still does it. It seems to go away when warmed up...i think it is something in the steering rack...another one of FORDS mess ups that won't come out for awhile...some people are more sensitive to what the car does(me included)...some wouldn't know if the car was missing wheels...lol

mikes rx

Before anything, let me say this: Like the person above me said, some people are more sensitive to vibrations than others. Obviously you are the only one that can gauge how bad the shimmy is, but note that what may be "annoying" to you may be well within limits for what's considered to be "balanced".

Now, here's what I think about what's going on, based on what you're saying:

What you're describing is flat spotting. Usually, it happens when the car is sat for a long while (usually a week or so), but can occur more often depending on the tire.

With regard to your issues with the Steeda's: get them rebalanced. Even though they were balanced, they may have "messed up" doing it. So, just get them rechecked. It's very possible that they put the weight at the wrong place by accident.

60-65 mph is a "resonance" for imbalanced wheels/tires. That is the point where it would be most noticeable. So, first get them rechecked.

No shimmy once warm is normal: I think it's because as they get heat in the tire, the pressure builds, causing the flat spots to "pop out".

Also, as someone else pointed out: part of the problem could be due to the change in stiffness. Also, it could be due to the tread pattern and the way it moves on the concrete.

For the person that rotated his tires, and it got worse: that is also "normal". Having a wheel that isn't balanced on the front would be much more annoying that it being on the rear. That's why it's best to have as little weight as possible on the front wheels, and more weight for the rear wheels.

newbreedgt05

You can add me to the list now too. After putting on the new razors and Nittos, I"ve noticed the steering wheel lightly shaking at lower speeds. Sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not. I though that it might just be the road, but after seeing this thread, I'm beginning to think otherwise. I didn't notice it with the stock rims, but I was never really paying attention to it. I know the little metal clips aren't the problem, because I removed them when I changed the rotors. I ruled out the balancing too, because it's not always there and I've had it up to 80 mph with no shake. Maybe there are some weak bushings from the factory that get amplified when different wheels are put on. Hopefully someone will find the answer to this problem.

Rich

2L8IWON

70MACH1OWNER: Sorry to of gotten back so late but I am in the middle of a move to London. At any rate the removal of the clips should do the trick. I have Foose wheels that do not have counter bores. After the removal my shimmy just about went away.

I have a VERY SLIGHT shimmy not around 60-70mph. It's barely noticable and usually depends on the road surface wether it is present or not.

Hope this helps man

- Jess

65205

My steering wheel has a shimmy when I get onto the highway in front of my subivision. It goes away 1-2 miles down the road. That stretch of road was repaved when I bought the car and I thought it might be the road causing it. As mentioned a few posts above, it may be "flat spotting" as that was the conclusion in another thread, maybe a year or so ago.(maybe another forum)BTW I have stock rims and tires.

blkstang06

Scott, The FR500 wheels have counterbore, Remove the clips anyway!