Root cause(s) for Tramlining?

Well, that’s another subject that has been explored on J-L in depth but my personal experience was I bought adapters from Fosseway in the UK. I take them with me to the guy that does all my tires and this allows him to balance the tires.

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On our old cars, Harvey and others, are probably right but just FWIW…I had the same “wandering” on a brand new Mazda Speed3 turbo a few years back, my son had a similar problem on his oversized brand new truck, and I now have a similar/same problem on my 2021 Mazda6 Turbo…also have Vred’s on my E and have similar problems, and my car has has had a complete rebuild over the last three years. Sometimes it’s just the tires!!

BTW, all the aforementioned occurred/occurs on a stretch of I75 around Marietta/Woodstock area (for those who live close by) so it’s a good and consistent test piece on a lousy road!

I am going to check the archives again for the balancing issue of the wheels that came up here earlier. Thank you for the advice and I will update you all here once I have something to report (late spring I hope).

Long shot, but the ball joint(s) inside the rack bellows could be worn. There is procedure for adjusting them.

Eric

thanks. Yes they were worn. I serviced them last year. They are not the issue.

Stephan

Surprised not mentioned yet; front spindle or wheel bearing wear. Pretty common and easy to check- compare wheel movement in the 12-6 o’clock axis vs. the 9-3 o’clock axis. If 12-6 has more movement, remove hub and feel the spindle at the bottom where the inner wheel bearing rides; if there is a step, a new spindle is in order.

Thanks Robert. I will add this to my list.

Robert

just for clarification: with “spindle” do you mean the stub axle shaft?

Stephan

Having been a Dunlop devotee it was hard for me to switch away. Nonetheless, as the tires aged and the rubber hardened, the quaint tramlining increased. At last change when the Dunlops were no longer available, I switched to Stahl Sport Radial. These tires matched the tire patch geometry on the road contact compared to the Dunlops and also had a general similar appearance from the side of the car. Thus, appearance and similar steering characteristics to the Dunlops. Unfortunately, the Stahl Sport Radials have no noticeable tramlining.

For old times’ sake, that can be adjusted into the geometry…:grimacing:

Hi,

There are repro UK sourced Dunlops available, I bought a set for my Ser 1 long ago, SP41 radials 185 VR15 and really loved them. I recently got Aquajets, 205 ER70 15 for the XJ6C, nothing bad to say about those either, have recently driven them on snow in Sweden and at 180km/h (112mph) in Germany, no issues, good grip and feel.

Cheers!

I looked up the Stahl Sport radials online and it seems that visually they come very close to the Dunlops. Never heard of them. Do others share the same positive experience with Roger?

Thanks

Yes. Stub axle always confuses me because I used to work with domestic 4wd vehicles and it isn’t the same on those.

OK thanks! Last time I checked there was no wheel movement, neither 12-6 nor 9-3. Anyway, I will check that again.

Stephan

Hello Stephan, attached are some of my notes and documents useful for when considering tires. For my switch to Stahl Sport Radials, principal considerations included tread width, section width, and that these tires are DOT rated (many classic car tires are not DOT rated).

Dunlop 60sand70s.pdf (53.7 KB) GOVPUB-C13-051f0d126790d8aa2acac7563ff5ac36.pdf (2.4 MB) Tire Sizes.pdf (621.0 KB)
Tires Calculations McW.pdf (1.3 MB)

Thank you Roger. Much appreciated!

Update: I decided to purchase a set of Firestone 6.40-15s. They arrived last week and I had them installed right after. The tram lining disappeared and the ride quality over all improved. I am still going to measure the toe-in bit I am quite comfortable that all is ok. Many thanks for all your inout and advice!

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