Suzuki: suzuki samurai front end shimmy, wheel wobble, front wheel bearings

Question
Hi got at shimmy in my sammi. Its a 1988 jx stock. I bought it as a project. I got the engine running fairlly nice. My problem is a wheel wobble in the front end. i replaced the steering box because it was leaking. Then i found out that the front left spring was broken at the rear mount so I replace that. I had a wheel alingment done before I found the broken spring it was toed in 3/8 in.. One of the first things I tried was to replace the front wheel bearings. I have some really well used p235 r 75 tires on it and had the 2 front ones balanced but they are old. A neighbour who does a lot of work on suzukis told me the u joints in the rear drive shaft needed to be replaced and that would solve the problem but I have checked that out and I don't feel any vibration in the tranny so how could it be the spiders?  It feels like the wheel wobble is comming from the front left side where the spring was broken is it possible that the previous owner hit something so hard  that the axel is bent? The shimmy only happens at about 60 to 70 km /hr and only 20% of the time but when it happens it is definately there. I wasn't going to do anything untill I got new tires but I can't afford them so I would like to get this wobble gone any ideas? Jeff

Answer
There's a steering damper that typically can cause just what you're experiencing.  It's not particularly expensive either.  Unless you have reason to believe it's been replaced in the past two years, you should consider replacing it.
Another issue is that the specs for bearing adjustment have a little too much play.  You should have the bearing adjustment so there is no play.  That implies a slight preload of the front bearings, but only in the area of 1/16 to 1/32 turn of the adjustment nut, as an absolute maximum, and obviously with a pack of fresh grease of the highest possible quality.  There are bearing greases with moly that have been shown to be measurably better than the rest.  When replacing bearings and packing them with the very high priced premium stuff, it's not unusual for the adjustment to not require resetting for five years or so.
I had a similar issue when i first got mine, and new bearings adjusted to zero play solved that.