!930 Essex vibration

30essex
30essex Senior Contributor
edited November -1 in HUDSON
My 1930 Essex sedan begins to vibrate noisily when I get to about 40 mph. I'm at a loss as to what causes it. I balanced the tires and I checked the wheel bearings. When I ran it with the rear wheels jacked up, the driveshaft and rear wheels seemed to run quite smoothly. I even put new rubber under the front motor mounts (it had pieces of tire). Is this vibration normal? Any ideas on how I can fix this?

Comments

  • Jon B
    Jon B Administrator
    That's Essex's automatic speed control, which was set to vibrate just prior to the rods' coming through the side of the engine. Just another convenience of Hudson engineering!



    Getting serious, though.... have you pushed the clutch in at 40, to see if the vibration goes away? If vibration is still present, then you know for sure it isn't the engine's fault.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Check fan blade and hub and U-joints.
  • ernie28
    ernie28 Expert Adviser
    Jon B wrote:

    Getting serious, though.... have you pushed the clutch in at 40, to see if the vibration goes away? If vibration is still present, then you know for sure it isn't the engine's fault.



    When you press the clutch in and it goes away it may be in the clutch assembly rather than the engine. I have a similar issue at 35mph and if I disengage the clutch, let the engine slow down the engage the clutch again the slight vibration I have is gone. I am yet to take the gearbox out to investigate further. I did also take the driveshaft off and aligned the ends properly and this has also helped.

    Good luck - make sure you let us know what ends up being the problem.



    Alistair
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    how did you balance the tires? are your universals sloppy? what about the output of the trans? the pinion bearing? how old are the tires? i really expected mine to be shaking all over the place when i was getting ready to put it on the road. i had to fix the rims, the prev. owner put o nnew tires but all the rims were not seated right, it ran much smoother after. i keep waiting for the day the rods decide they want achange of scenery.
  • ESSX28-1
    ESSX28-1 Senior Contributor
    On my '28 Essex I had a lot of vibration at certain speeds. Turned out to be worn drive shaft universals. Couldn't find new ones to use, so replaced with another Essex drive shaft (from a '27E). I'm currently getting the new shaft balanced as a matter of principle even though the vibration had gone.

    The only way I could balance my front wheels was to take wheel, hub & brake drum into tyre shop. It then fitted their balancing machine. While it fixed my steering shimmy, I'll need to be careful about rotating tyres.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Also does your car have wood spoke wheels? They'ed have to be pretty loose but could cause it also.
  • 30essex
    30essex Senior Contributor
    Thanks for the many good ideas on how to elliminate vibration on my car. It turned out that the engine seems to have been most at fault. I took out the spark plugs and checked the compression. All the cylinders were about the same but are all low, around 52 lbs. Does anyone know what the reading should be for this car? I also notices the plugs were black so I adjusted the carburator. This seems to have made a difference because on a short test run I got it up to 45 with little vibration. I didn't go faster because I didn't want a speeding ticket (city street). By the way, how fast can you safely drive these cars without the rods going out the side? The driveshaft has some play at the front end and there is definately a rattle in the clutch area. I guess at some point I should work on that. The car does have wooden spokes but they are rock solid. The tires and tubes are new. I tried to get a tire shop to balance the wheels but they said they couldn't. They gave me a supply of old weights and I balanced them myself by putting each wheel in a frame so it could rotate freely and then adding weights to the part that came to the top.
  • ernie28
    ernie28 Expert Adviser
    30essex wrote:
    All the cylinders were about the same but are all low, around 52 lbs. Does anyone know what the reading should be for this car? I also notices the plugs were black so I adjusted the carburator. This seems to have made a difference because on a short test run I got it up to 45 with little vibration. I didn't go faster because I didn't want a speeding ticket (city street). By the way, how fast can you safely drive these cars without the rods going out the side? .



    I don't know what the factory specs are but with my '28s, one has a fresh newly rebuilt motor and compressions are an even 100 and on the other one that is more tired they are around 80 even.

    As far a speed goes I cruise around 40-45 max as do most others I know. Why put more stress than necessary on components that are nearly 80 years old? There is no rush when we are out enjoying our vintage motoring. If I am in a hurry to get somewhere I take the modern.



    Alistair
  • Clutchguy
    Clutchguy Senior Contributor
    Steve E. wrote:
    Check fan blade and hub and U-joints.



    Make sure you check the fan blade REAL close.It could be getting ready to break and if you are checking for this vibration with the hood open-and the fan is the culprit,it could spell disaster!!! I'm a hardhead but my head isn't that Hard!! Also what is the speed of the vibration[Hertz level]?? Is it a slow wobble,slow shake,related to MPH,or is it a fine vibration relavent to engine speed.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    please... dont remind me about my fan mishap....
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