Strange wobble shimmy

[AhYesCB7]

Hey guys, got a 93 SE sedan with some odd goings on.

Heres the important details:

Got the car with front wheel bearings that were beyond toast.
Threw on new inner (outer?) tie rods that screw onto the rack (the driver side was loose, literally about to spin off any day lol)
Got the car aligned.
Threw new tires on the car.
Front right shock is toast, the rest are meh.
Car has neg camber on the front right and rear left wheel enough according to alignment printout.
Rotors are new.
The tire shop added weights to one wheel that I noticed, while retaining older ones already on the wheel somehow. The shop is reputable, but how did they even manage that? Threw the old ones back on?

The problem:

Ever since I got the tires the car has a strange wobble that is hard to point out. Mind you the car is on bad shocks and 24 year old bushings and has always felt its age but I almost think thats not to blame. On the highway the car has a shimmy but tracks straight. The wobble isnt dependant on throttle only, thats to say its not happening only under load, it sometimes gets worse when you let off the throttle and coast. The wobble seems to get worse going around a long banking curve on the highway that lets the car really lean. Sometimes you can find sweet spots where the car smoothens out but it always comes back. When you press the brakes sometimes the wobble shakes the steering wheel aggressively sometimes it doesn't. Im not really feeling any crazy bump steer. Would seem to be worse on hotter days.

Im surely forgetting little details and nuances please ask detailed questions I can answer them in depth.

Id love to be able to throw all new everything under it but I can only afford to piece it together and I'd like to be able to figure this out and replace the parts till I delve even deeper into the suspension.

[Raf99]

Front upper ball joint(s).

Just went though this with a car of mine. Had warped rotors and had a vibration on the highway that felt like all my tires were a little unbalanced. Wasn't related to braking or acceleration and going around long sweeping turns on the highway would sometimes exaggerate it a little. Sometimes it would smooth out but this depended on the grade of the road. Got new rotors and it was noted that the drivers side upper ball joint should be replaced soon.
Eventually it got worse to the point where I could pin point that it was coming from the front drivers side. Then it got worse to where you always felt it.

Mechanic who did the rotors said it should be replaced soon. I swapped it out and it was beyond gone. Boot was torn, could wiggle it around, tons of free play.

Check your upper ball joints. This could also be inner tie rod too, you would have felt the free play when you did the outers.

[AhYesCB7]

Thanks for the input! I can see this being the culprit, when I did the wheel bearings the UBJ and LBJ seemed nice and solid as far as wiggling the joint itself but the rubber was shot. The alignment was so bad and I had to drive it like that so Im guessing I did them in.

Going to go look at another 90-91 today, maybe ill get lucky and itll have decent ones on it.

A couple more details I should mention since I just took the car out for a quick ride:

The wobble can sometimes be felt going as slow as 10mph or so as I coast to a stop.
It starts right around 30-40 mph always.
Hitting bumps feels for the most part solid and controlled.
When the front end is off the ground there isnt really any excessive wiggle in the wheels horizontally or vertically, very slight horizontal play but I figure thats normal?

I like the sound of the UBJ, thats easy to fix but if there isnt any vertical slop in the wheel wouldnt that mean they are good?

Cant you just regrease and replace the boots cause those looked a little cooked? And if I'm not mistaken there would be no need for an alignment when changing just the UCA assembly?

[G. Wiffington]

Jack your car up & do the wheel wiggle test to see which bushing/ball joints are
bad.

If you go to do the UBJs you might as well do the LBJs at the same time.
If the uppers are going out then the lowers are definitely frail.
& when those LBJs go out you could crash.

Try going to an alignment shop that has a good deal for
the lifetime alignments, so that you don't waste your money getting multiple
alignments. That way even if you slowly replace your bushings..etc. you
can always get an alignment. (Firestone around my way was a good spot.)

Having a nice complete suspension is probably my favorite part about my
CB because it just feels so clean, safe, & fun!

[Raf99]

If the boot was toast, then that upper ball joint is probably no good. A slight movement for the 12 & 6 wiggle test = a lot of movement when a 3000lbs car is on it. Make sure your tires are balanced too.

[deevergote]

Torn boot = bad joint. Once dirt gets in there, the joint is bad. Don't even try to save it. It's not worth the risk. Dirt turns grease into an abrasive paste. Even a small amount can cause a considerable amount of damage in a relatively short time to something that sees the amount of motion and abuse that a ball joint sees. ALWAYS assume that a torn ball joint boot means the joint is 100% compromised. The only time you should ever replace just the boot is if you tore an intact boot while working on the car, and you can replace it before the grease has the opportunity to get contaminated.

Blown shocks will cause a wobble. Bad alignment or wheel balance will cause a wobble (don't assume that just because things were done professionally that they were necessarily done correctly.) If the car isn't lowered and it has negative camber, you either have failing components, or your car was damaged at some point and things are bent. That's not normal. Camber is not adjustable on these cars in stock form, so there should be no way for it to be noticeably out of spec.

[Accord problems]

Had the same issue with mine . after lowering it i hit a big rock and broke the rack for the steering .

[AhYesCB7]

Thanks for the input guys, Im going to make a thread to show the car off and show a scan of the alignment printout. I dont think this car was ever in a serious wreck but there are signs that something might have happened in the rear at least.

Ill report back tonight.

[deevergote]

The bad thing is that not every accident gets reported. My CB7 was hit in the passenger front, but there was no record of it. It had been repaired, but it wasn't straight (learned that the hard way when I tried to install a traction bar!)

[AhYesCB7]

I know for sure the car was resprayed at some point and the trunk where the spoiler goes has some filler on it but they did a pretty good job. The paint is awful and I noticed the original green and clear underneath is still in good shape I want to try wetsanding it and buffing it out.

Either way, I saw the UBJ boots are beyond blown. Wanna get a set of upper assemblies from the parts store. Screw trying to press joints in and out Ill just take the easy route lol. When I did the wheel bearings I accidentally pressed the new ones into the knuckle before bolting the rotors to them first...

[deevergote]

The front control arm and UBJs should be replaced as a complete unit anyway. Honda doesn't even sell them separately! For something like that, it would be best to go to Honda for your parts. You'll pay a bit more, but they'll last. You don't want to fool around with cheap stuff when it comes to parts that WILL make you crash if they break (that being said, it's probably a bad idea to even drive this car until those joints are replaced.)

[AhYesCB7]

Yeah its noticeably worse than since I started this thread, shes gonna give soon. I'm gonna check the condition of the units on my donor car for giggles, I'm betting they're shot but I'm broke at the moment with bills and all. If they're gone too Ill have to figure something out.

[dhill_cb7]

I would listen to Deev. Your life is worth more than driving an unsafe 25+ year old car. I replaced my UCAs a few years back and I did not torque them properly and I had to take them off and redo it because I was hearing clunking sounds while driving.

I would take a bus, car pool, ask family or friends for a ride until you resolve this issue or you might kill yourself and others on the road driving it in these conditions.

I don't mean to sound like a dick but I would not risk driving it. And you said yourself it is getting worse.

Best of luck man hope you can get it resolved once you get some cash.

[AhYesCB7]

I'm going to go pick up new uppers now from the parts store. I dont hear any real clunking but "clunky" is a good word to describe the feeling up front.

[AhYesCB7]

About to button up the driver side. Passenger side boot was shot but the joint had a bit of stiffness left to it although you could feel the grittiness inside the socket. Drivers side boot looks great but the joint is free as all hell. Its no wonder the car shook on the road and wobbled at low speed. Outer tie rods look tired and the sway bar bushings are tired too. LBJ might as well be done now too.

Excited to go for a spin after its done. Gonna see how she feels and go from there. Want to do the rest in one shot if I can so I dont need a thousand alignments.