Front end shimmy.

I have a front end shimmy on my '79 super beetle cab. It begins at 62 mph and will continue to around 70 or more as that is where I slow down. It is quite disturbing, but does not feel dangerous.
I used the search feature and found one article. I checked the ball joints and they appear tight as do the tie rod ends (I can get them to move with channel locks).
Tires are balanced, wheels are straight, and the car does not do it when hitting a pot hole, etc. or at lower speeds.

Help?
Thanks,
GG

Were your tires spin balanced or bubble balanced? If the tire weights are not applied on the wheel centerline, sometimes this can cause a dynamic imbalance. Larger the weight, worse the imbalance.

Were your tires spin balanced on or off the car? Spin balance on the car picks up imbalanced rotor discs (for instance).

Are your tires cupped or otherwise unusually worn?

Is there a steering stabilizer on your car? 2nd guess would be cord separation on a tire.

David, if wheels are dynamically balanced, usually weights are placed on both the inside and outside of the wheel. I agree that if statically balanced the weights should be placed near the center of the wheel if possible.

I would seriously replace the steering stabilizer, it is cheap enough to replace just to rule it out. Have any recent changes been made?

+1 on the steering stabilizer.

Same thing happened in my car, it was that at the end.

There's article on SAMBA (?) on Super Beetle front end shakes. So if balancing and rotating tires don't work it mentions control arm bushings and strut bearings that wear and need to be replaced to fix.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=334589

Super Beetle shimmy was unfortunately quite popular. I agree, check on the Samba there will be many guru's that have commented on this.

I like also going to Rob and Dave.
http://www.vw-resource.com/wobble.html#why

Further down he talks about rotating the wheel on the drum, or disc...? Taking the wheel off and putting it back on with the hole in another hole (know what I mean?) Sounds like voodoo...but plausible!?

Also have your struts checked make sure they are in good enough shape. But the most common problem with supers is a bad wheel balance and they pefer and recommended to do them on the car..

ObaKba,

Rack and pinion appear to be fine...no stabilizer...ball joints, tie rod ends are tight...struts wil correct after less than one bounce post jumping on bumper...about i/2 inch play in steering wheel each way. No play in wheels either 12-6 or 9-3 positions.
Tires are new, but i don't know if they were balanced on the car.
I will take it to do so post haste.

Thanks,

GG

Oh! and you rack has a adjuster on the base plate under the pinion, you can take out some of that lost motion , but not to much or it will be stiff and can bind..

What Scott Slater said x2 wrt steering stabilizer/damper. Especially if the shimmy is initiated or worsens by bumps in the road.

Well, as fate would have it, i installed net strut cart. and i cannot believe the difference. I am not sure if it solved the whole problem as i screwed up the speedometer cable while doing the job, so I will let you know later. I'm working on the super beetle to hone my skills for the speedie :-{)))))!
Thanks and regards,

GG

I have always complained about how the super front end tend to ride high. last fall I also replaced the original cartridges on mine .

While I was at it. I grabbed up a old matching pair of springs compressed them 2 inches with a threaded rod and 2 blocks of wood heated the top coil in 3 places and let them cool . I got a perfect 2 inch drop on the front end .

I then sprung for the 2 inch drop front sway bar kit. It all came together perfectly. The super handles even better now.
and she now sets level (:])

Glad your's worked out too Sir!