Wheel wobble at low speed...

[hatchedlsvtec]

I have a 91 civic Si that I just swapped a jdm b16a w/mt into. Started up amazing so I'm all stoked but when I go to test drive it, about 15 feet down the road I start hearing and feeling a sort of robust wobble coming from one of the front wheels, I think the driver side. This happened at less than 15mph and got worse with speed. I pulled both front wheels off, it looks like the axles are installed right, they are new btw, the lugs had been torqued, all the suspension hardware is tight, though some bushings are getting old it was not doing anything like this before the swap. The pass. front wheel seems great, but when rotating the driver side by hand some weird things were happening:

Noises; not clicking, but like a blop blop blop.

I noticed the engine would rock slightly when rotating the wheel.

On the test drive, when I turned left, the problem went away, turning right made it much worse and was definately noticable going straght.

The alignment was done on the car about 1000m ago, both front wheel bearings, axles and tires are new. My guess is the intermediate shaft. If it, or the bearings in it were bad it might have these problems right? If so, can I re-use the one off the b18a1 w/mt that I know is good?

 

[95b16coupe]

sounds like it could be one of a few things. you may have a bad axle or cv.

i would take the car in to get the tires checked out, they could be out of balance. also, the alignment needs to be re-done if you put a new engine in it.

recheck the lugs to make sure they are tight. front and rear.

 

[hatchedlsvtec]

I was turning the axle via the lug studs with no wheel attached and the noise and engine movement were apparent. I'm using brand new 90-93 integra axles

 

[Jeef]

Re torque every single bolt in the suspension you removed when you did the swap. Check your ball joints. I haven't worked on a Honda in years but are there any wheel bearings your could have disturbed when you put the axles in? Also, remember that just because a part is new doesn't mean that its any good.

 

[hatchedlsvtec]

The problem was the intermediate shaft on the b16a... i swapped it out for the one off of the b18a and it all works perfectly. when i had both shafts off i noticed the b16a intermediate shaft is about 1 inch longer than the b18a, and the noise and vibration came from the axle from the intermediate shaft to the wheel being compressed to the point that it could not bend and rotate. both int. shafts have identical mounting points, the shaft in the transmission and the 3 bolts mounting to the block. now the driver side axle has room to do what it needs to.