Steering Damper

[chris.hunt22]

I have had the disco in at my local garage for bits and pieces, I asked him to look at the wandering/shaking at speed thats its doing and see what his opinion is, he has had the steering in bits and can only put it down to the steering damper.  This is a brand new damper I put on about 6 weeks ago, although only standard I thought it was fine, my mechanic thinks that there should be a lot more resistance in it than there is, it seemed quite easy to push and pull when I put it on, any suggestions??  I asked him about the pre load on the swivels and he says it feels fine

[Budgie]

Now that you've got the larger tyres and raised suspension on there, it maybe worth going for a H/D damper.
I've had De Carbon on there which lasted well, until I bent it on a rock.  :roll: So I now have a ProComp damper than that seems a little heavier than the De Carbon and reduces the feel of the PAS a little as well.

[Bulli]

i had a decarbon on and had to remove it about 2 months later, it was dead!!
procomp one is holding up well much heavier than stock. Have you got a steering guard? if so buy a suzuki sj kit and you can relocate the damper up infront and put one end through the steerign guard to anchor it....you wont break it then

[Budgie]

I've looked at Wizard's relocation kit for doing that but I've not decided what I'm doing with the Disco so don't want to spend any more money than necessary on it just now.
The body is suffering from the rust and I've got a new rear crossmember & floor to get welded in, the front inner wings need fixing along with new battery trays and the alpine windows have holes round them and need sorting (could do with a new roof really!  :( )
So all in all, the steering damper is a bit down the list at the mo'.  

[Range Rover Blues]

The problem with relocating the standard steering damper to the front is that it's barely long enough, the front drag link travels further than the back, so you have to be careful setting it up.  I did as Bulli suggests and fitted a Defender knuckle and drilled the steering guard (although the damper can bottom out restricting the steering) but I find the steering chatters on RH lock.

Anyway, back to the question.  Steering damper is half the answer, steering swivel preload is also a big factor in steering feel/feedback as is tyres, castor, scrub radius etc.  Also check for the big kump of metal bolted to the bottom of each swivel, these are also dampers.

[Bulli]

the sj is a fraction longer and comes with all the relevant bits to fasten it....and its the same price as the disco one!lol

[stageonesimmo]

Was the new damper 'primed' when it was fitted - i.e. extended/compressed through its travel a few times first?........

I've seen not doing that kill main suspension dampers fairly rapidly, though I suspect it might not be as much of an issue with more modern dampers, it may well not have helped......

[Range Rover Blues]

Was the new damper 'primed' when it was fitted - i.e. extended/compressed through its travel a few times first?........

I've seen not doing that kill main suspension dampers fairly rapidly, though I suspect it might not be as much of an issue with more modern dampers, it may well not have helped......

I'd hope not, given that modern dampers are self-priming.

[Budgie]

The Armstrong damper I got for the Rangie said to prime it in the instructions that came with the damper so some still need doing.
Even with the ProComps on the Disco I primed them before putting them on, only takes another 2 minutes to do.  

[chris.hunt22]

I didn't know you had to prime them, I will have done it anyway as it did seem slack compared with a shock absorber, does anyone know if a standard disco shock absorber will do as I have 4 of them kicking around!!

[Range Rover Blues]

No, the suspension dampers are double acting, they work differently in either direction.