VIDEO: Click here to watch wobble15

SOB STORY:
I've been having some problems with my rear end starting this spring when it was making a slight whining noise from 35mph-55mph so I replaced my diff. fluids and checked the wheel bearings and it still continued but everything checked out fine and I don't drive the car much so I ignored it until more problems arose. The noise was definatly coming from that wheel as well since it went away when making sharp left turns (taking the weight off the rear driver wheel).

During our club cruise a couple of weeks ago one of the FD guys informed me that my driver's rear wheel had some wobble to it. This cruise took place the day after I finished coating my new 'vert wheels and had new tires put on them and balanced. I mounted the wheels on the car myself in my garage.

I put it up on stands today and the first thing I checked was that there was no play in the wheel by grabbing the tire at 12 and 6 o'clock and there was no perceptable play and the whole assembly spun relativly free (the LSD makes it drag a little of course).

Next up was putting the wheel back on and running it on jack stands and I did a big "" when I saw how bad it was. I checked the other side and it does it to a much lesser degree but it's still wobbling a bit. I should also mention that the whining noise pretty much went away after mounting the 'vert wheel.

I pulled the wheel back off, cleaned the moutning surface and hub (there was a little grime and junk on the hub, thought maybe it wasn't seating right) then put the wheel back on and it still was doing the same thing.

I then ran it w/o a wheel mounted and I couldn't really tell if it was still wobbling. I checked that all the bolts on the hub were secure and there were no torn bushings as well.

I then pulled an old GXL wheel out of my shed that was balanced a few months before I took it off and tried the old trick again and it still had a slight wobble to it (the video isn't at a good angle to see it, but if you look at the tire you can pick it up) so I checked the wheel bearing again by doing the pull trick w/ the GXL wheel on and it still didn't budge.

So.... what the heck is going on with that wheel? Did Tires Plus **** up and not balance it correctly? I doubt the wheel is warped because it has barely and marks on the rim and I would think they would tell me that when they mounted and balanced it. I initially thought wheel ebaring and I'd hate to replace it because that can get spendy and it's a major pain in the *** to boot. Besides, I HATE replacing things and still have the problem persist.

 

Bent rim on first wheel in video is my guess. Have a good wheel shop check it out and if necessary, have it straightened or ditch it. Find a shop that has a Hunter GSP9700 machine and I guarantee they will find the problem. Go to the web site at the link below to learn about this machine and to find a local shop that has one.

Visually, watch the rim--not the tire--to pick up on a bent wheel. Tires can deceive with different tones sometime making it look like the wheel is wobbling.

http://www.gsp9700.com

 

I agree, bent wheel. fix it or ditch it.

 

Ohhhhhhh i love that machine, i've personally used it many times and it works wonders.

 

Crap, that really sucks. I guess it's good I didn't pay too much for these wheels.

How much does it usually run for that kind of repair?

 

Ok, it's not the wheels, they're straight.

I took the front driver's wheel off and swapped it with the rear then did the same running test and it still wobbles the same but I'm still not getting any play when I grab teh tire and pull back and forth so I'm not sure if it's the wheel bearings or not.

 

can you repair rims that are out of true? b/c oddly enough the same wheel on my car is fucked, and i want to keep them

 

wow that looks crazy like a spinning vortex of doom. the gxl wheel that is. it kinda looked like your break was wobbeling a ll bit to me i dunno maybe just the glare

 

Yeah, those GXL wheels look pretty cool on the camera because of the frame drop.


I'm thinking of pulling the hub off tomarrow if the bolts aren't too frozen (I applied liberal amounts of PB Blaster this afternoon.) What other tests can I do to see if it's the wheel bearings or maybe the driveshaft? Will the bearings have any visual clues that they're screwed up? Also, does anyone know what size socket I need for the spindle nut?

I rarely drive this car but our last meet of the season is happening October 8th and it's dealer sponsored so I'd love to be able to take this car out there but I'm afraid to drive on the wheel. Besides the car looking ridiculus and some bad tire wear, what else would I be risking driving it just that one day to the show and back?

 

Ahahaha, only on this Rx-7. The problem was extremely stupid.

I began to pull things apart and inspect the axles and brakes first (since those are the first things to come off to get to the bearing) and noticed I was missing a disc set screw on both sides and the screws that were present were definatly not the OEM ones because they stuck out about the thickness of your normal flat-head screw driver.

The reason the GXL wheels did not exhibit the wobble is because they have four cavities between each of the lug holes on the back of the hub section of the wheel and the set screws happen to be where those cavities are so they don't cause the wheel to seat crooked. The new wheels are completely flat on the back so they were sitting ****-eyed on the one set screw that was present on both rear wheels (there should be two per disc).

I attempted to remove the screw and of course it was siezed or cross-threaded in so I pulled out teh drill and drilled both those ******* out then used a wire wheel on my drill to get a nice smooth surface on both the wheel and the disc hub, then pulled out the torque wrench and properly torqued the lug nuts on to the FSM specs and there is no wobble, noise, or wheel bearing play. YAY!!!!

I checked out the front wheels and they both have the proper set screws in place so that's why there was never a problem with them.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, now I'm going to spend the moeny I put aside for new bearings for something fun.... maybe save a little more and get a new flywheel.