Steering wheel vibration/shimmy at around 50mph or greater

[Deadrodent]

I've had this problem for awhile...at any speeds over 50mph my steering wheel will vibrate and shimmy. I replaced the 2 front tires and the vibration and shimmy decreased dramatically but it has returned. on the freeway i can smell burning rubber and if i remember correctly the insides of my old tires were worn down. plus i was getting major understeer. i was thinking that it was probably blown tc rod bushings but the symptoms don't really add up? sounds more like maybe either my inner or outer tie rods might be damaged/on their way out? or could it just be a simple alignment?

btw my tc rod bushings are cracked and nastified so that's definitely something i need to fix. I'm also experiencing the phantom clunk when i turn the wheel and the car tracks to the right...

thanks in advance!

[ddgsxr504]

Well you are on track with everything you have said so far. You won't ever get a good allignment if your tie rods are toast and that clunk you hear is your tension rods. Unless you want to fork over $$$ for spherical bearing tension rod(I plan to later) you can get ploy bushings for like $30. I could be wrong on the price, I just went ahaed and bought the whole energy suspension kit for like $75 from http://www.suspension.com. Good luck with all that!

[skydragoness]

Don't forget to balance your tires every 3k mi, not doing so can cause a lot of things to change

[Deadrodent]

well at wyotech i checked out Alldata...found out that it's a common problem...at 55+mph wheel shimmy....caused by improper tire balancing...damn i love going to school....