1968 Ghia Coupe low speed shimmy/pulls hard to passenger side

[carguytroy]

Still ironing out the bugs on my sons first car. Has a pretty good shake at low speed and pulls hard to the passenger side. Above 15 mph the shake goes away. Front end issues I’m sure. Would a stabilizer be the the first place to start? Looking at all the bushings for the ball joints, tie rod ends etc they look to be in good shape. No tears in the boots. It does lean to the drivers side. I’m told that’s leaf springs which I planned on replacing in the future. Tire wear is good. No cupping or uneven wear. Suggestions?

[jeffrey8164]

Alignment for pulling, for shaking maybe a worn bearing but you might hear that if it was that bad, tie rod end which isn’t hard to check for but does require a bit of force, maybe even just a simple wheel balance. Worse case a tweaked spindle. Lots of paths to peruse.
Lean is probably due to the rear suspension more than the front
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[TDCTDI]

How old are the tires?
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[Evil_Fiz]

I had a similar issue between 20 and 35 MPH in my 68 Ghia. It turned out to be a bad tie rod end. Get the front wheels just of the ground, grab one wheel at 9 and 3 O'Clock and firmly but slightly rock it back and forth about the vertical axis. If you feel any clanking or knocking you most likely have a worn steering or suspension component.

Get the car up to speed under safe and controlled conditions (empty mall parking lot early Sunday morning works well) let the wheel go when the shimmy starts, keeping your hands just off the wheel for safety. If the steering wheel starts to rock back and forth it is most likely a worn tie rod end. If this is the case you may also hear or sense the wheels rocking in and out.

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Emil
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kiwighia68

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The K_R_A_K_E_N_N : a 70 Ghia Convertible reinterpreted

[richardc]

Before you go crazy, just crisscross front tires (LF to RF , RF to LF) and see if pull change, if it does it tire problem
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1970 Ghia vert
1970 Beetle sedan

[kingkarmann]

Regarding the pulling it sure seems like an alignment issue.
The shimmy you're describing probably is a worn steering damper. It's a cheap and fairly easy replacement.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2127778
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[carguytroy]

Had a loose wheel bearing on the passenger side for starters. Replaced the bearings on both sides today. Better but still getting a shimmy at about 15 ish mph intermittently. Worse under deceleration but definitely in the front and somewhere. Put the front of the car on stands while I did the wheel bearings. Measured the rear of the car while on stands and got 21 5/8 on both sides from the center of the rear wheel, ground to wheel arch. Looks like I probably need new leafs in the front? Or is there any adjustment in the front torsion set up?Moving the wheel back and forth I get a clunking noise. Ball joints seem to be good. Thinking tie rod ends and stabilizer to start out I guess as you guys suggested.