Help disgnose my steering wheel shake

[Voice of Reason]

I suspect it's the LCAs but want to get some feedback before ordering any parts.

At highway speeds, say over 60, if I'm taking a gentle curve in the road where the steering wheel would be at 11:30 or 12:30 I am getting a terrible shake in the steering wheel and it feels like one of the tires is going to snap off from shaking. I just jacked the front end up and in both wheels when I grab them at 3 and 9 and push/pull I get motion. After taking the wheels off I did the same with the hub and watched the LCAs and they seem loose.

I can't take it to the dealer because earlier this year I changed the radius rod bushings. And Spohn doesn't appear to ever plan to release their LCAs for our cars (at least it seems that way). So unless anyone has any other ideas I think I am going to have to order the revised factory LCAs.

One question on the replacement. I really don't want to have to swap the radius rod to the new arms. Has anyone tried just replacing the two straight LCAs to see if that cures things?

Oh, one other potential cause. When I had my alignment done earlier this year I had camber set at -1 in the front and -.5 in the rear. Toe in was set at 0.1. I think it's toed in too much but I've never taken it back to change it. Could the excessive toe in be causing this, or making things worse?

[GT Drew]

So you only want to replace half of the known worn parts. I think this is the opportunity to do it right and save some money. Buy the set of arms and the 4 poly control arm bushings. Shops charge less labour to press the bushings if the parts are off the car. Or let the dealer replace the set, then take the car to a shop and have new poly bushings pressed in. Something I read from Pedders a while back. The excess movement from the soft stock bushings, accelerates the wear in the ball joints. Something to consider until the SPOHN ARMS ARE RELEASED, DAMN IT. lol

[SRG963]

I had the updated OEM arms installed, and she drives better than new. No shake unless the road is uneven.

Excessive toe will cause tire cupping on the inside of the tire, which could cause wobbling. I run .05 toe out on all 4 corners. 1.4 degrees camber up front, .7 in the rear.

[Voice of Reason]

So you only want to replace half of the known worn parts. I think this is the opportunity to do it right and save some money. Buy the set of arms and the 4 poly control arm bushings. Shops charge less labour to press the bushings if the parts are off the car. Or let the dealer replace the set, then take the car to a shop and have new poly bushings pressed in. Something I read from Pedders a while back. The excess movement from the soft stock bushings, accelerates the wear in the ball joints. Something to consider until the SPOHN ARMS ARE RELEASED, DAMN IT. lol

I'll be doing the work myself so it's not a question of having to pay someone to do it. Getting the lower control arm bushing kit is a good idea though, I hadn't thought of that. It took longer than expected to press in the radius rod bushings so I'm hoping that they aren't the real issue and I can leave those two alone and changing the lower control arms will do it. If it's still an issue I'll have no choice but to change those though.

And an alignment will be in order to, I want to zero out the toe.

[GT Drew]

Then you need to do only one test. Are the ball joints of the radius rods worn? If they are, then they have to be replaced. I don't know what brand of Radius rod bushings you have but I know Pedders does not recommend they be pressed out and used again. Take the nut off the ball joint and pop it out of the knuckle. You will see how loose it is right away and know if it needs to be replaced. Since you have poly bushing in the Radius rods, that is not the source of your shakes. Other areas to check are the tie rods and the strut bushings.

[odoprelude]

Same exact problem here.. I get it under braking as well, coming from drivers side.. so LCA? No popping noises yet..