Volvo RWD 200 Forum

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help! front end shimmy 200 1983

i've got a shimmy in the front end of my 83 wagon which can become rather violent at cruising speeds. the vibration is strangely absent at times, and freakin scary at others (only at sustained freeway speeds, however). thought i fixed it last week thru getting the tires balanced, yet i was on the freeway today for the first time since, and the vibration returned. with the assistance of a mechanically inclined friend, we jacked up the front end and went thru the bentley troubleshooting table. he was fairly certain it was the ball joint, which looked pretty worn. he's a volkswagon expert tho, and was thus unwilling to put his total faith in that diagnosis. i did a lil research in the forums here, and discovered that other people have had the same problem. what kind of $ do you people think i'm looking at spending to fix this? i've got the last 2 weeks of class right now and don't have time to research doing this myself, so the mechanic looks like the only way out, i'm curious how much everyone else has invested in eliminating front end shimmys. i'm curious how much $ i have to commit when taking it in... i can swing ball joints & realignment, but not much more. if i can clarify anything at all for ya let me know. thanks for your time.

ryan mosier
83 245 turbo








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help! front end shimmy 200 1983

Ryan,

Ball joint replacement is fairly easy. There are three main nuts/bolts that connects the joint to the control axle and 4 failry small screws that connects it to the the strut assembly. Take these off and the ball joint will be out with a little tap from a hammer. Now removing the part that connects the ball joint to the strut (the actual name misses me) is kinda tricky. I jammed it in a bench vise to remove the nut. Installation is, of course, reverse of this.

You do not need to do an alignment after replacing the ball joint, at least I didn't. The car runs in a 'straight' line :-)

Cheers,
SM
--
90 BMW 325is, 98 BMW 528i, 90 Volvo 240DL








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I forgot to answer your question.... 200 1983

you are looking at a minimum 1-2hr at the mechanic's for both ball joints .

Cheers,
SM
--
90 BMW 325is, 98 BMW 528i, 90 Volvo 240DL







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