At low speeds, the back end of my '74 144 sways back and forth. The wheels appear to be on straight and there's no noise associated with this. Are there any relatively common problems that would cause this? It is not noticeable at any speed over 30 km/h.
Chad Zentner
pacer@telusplanet.net

Chad finds the answer:
I finally figured out what was causing the rear end of my car to sway. One of the tires! No, no; it wasn't on crooked, but get this: the tread down to the middle of the "steel belt" layer "delaminated" from the tire! Odd, is it not? Basically, a 2cm thickness of tread separated from the rest of the tire while still being connected (the tread section) at both ends.

I had the pleasure of experiencing this at 120 km/h and 4000 rpm while on the highway. One of the ends of the aformentioned strip broke off and started smacking the inside of the wheel well. Scared the HELL out of me. A monstrous THUNK, THUNK, THUNK down the highway; I was expecting to be picking up pieces of the rear end over the last 10 miles of road.
Chad Zentner
pacer@telusplanet.net