fluidfloyd
Active Member
Looks really good. I like your 16 position dampener choice and the mounting location. Hope this will be the cure you're looking for!
George
George
Steering dampers revolt!
- Thread starter PotvinGuy
- Start date
George, there is no cure for our disease, only more goodies to ease our suffering
fluidfloyd
Active Member
So that's what that pain is coming from! And all this time I just thought it was due to the fact so many people have called me an A--Hole! Thanks Doc!
I get a \NEW/ doc every time a go to a new VA appointment. They say I'm the pain!!
That's the Monroe unit, right? Do you have a pic of how it's mounted?
I don't know about Monroe , it only has NAPA on the box.I have pictures,just don't know how to post them.
I mounted it with a bracket welded to the left frame, and a home made 4 bolt clamp to the tie rod.
I am using a V W type 3 steering box.
Trying to get away from tracking the tar snakes.
Does the damper help with that?
I have the front end off to replace the king pins . I will post results when it's back together.
Good catch, Mike! When I rebuilt the front end (new leaf spring, spindles, steering), I had to adjust that rod out a few turns to get the bolt in. Now that I have the wheels back on and the car on the ground, I should be able to fix that. One of the benefits of posting pics here: other folks see things one might miss or, in my case, have forgotten about.
Success! It's a balmy 37 here, and I went for a drive, seeking out potholes and cracks. The damper on highest setting makes a big difference. Much more stable, little reaction to the road flaws and the feedback to the steering wheel was greatly reduced. No more white-knuckle death grip required. The damper adds a bit of steering effort, but that is a good thing; before it was like super-power steering, like the wheel wasn't connected to anything. I am going to add a second damper, to the driver side, and do some more experimenting. Note that the damper I used has a stroke of only 2.5", so I had to find a point on the steering arm that didn't exceed that lock-to-lock. And note that my car has a manual rack & pinion; I don't know what effect, if any, this damper would have on a conventional box steer or power R&P.
Added a second steering damper today:
With both dampers set to max, there is more steering effort, but it is still much less than a conventional steering box. Excellent stability now, with great control of potholes and such.
The mounting of the dampers takes some thought. There is a lot of shock transmitted thru the mount, so it must be strong and secure to a point that is fixed to the axle. In my case it's the batwings. I'm not quite satisfied with what I have yet. This is the driver side mount:
Steel strap between the 4-bar bolts, and an aluminum angle bolted to the strap. Think it's gonna need to be stronger. This is where welding skills would be nice.
With both dampers set to max, there is more steering effort, but it is still much less than a conventional steering box. Excellent stability now, with great control of potholes and such.
The mounting of the dampers takes some thought. There is a lot of shock transmitted thru the mount, so it must be strong and secure to a point that is fixed to the axle. In my case it's the batwings. I'm not quite satisfied with what I have yet. This is the driver side mount:
Steel strap between the 4-bar bolts, and an aluminum angle bolted to the strap. Think it's gonna need to be stronger. This is where welding skills would be nice.
It does add more stability, but it's not a quantum leap like the first one was. And since these dampers are designed for lighter duty on motorcycles, two might last longer than just one by sharing the work. But I'd definitely do one and see what you think.
