jeepdewd

I have a stock Steering Damper on right now. (97 grand laredo) Im looking for something to make the steering more tight.

What recomendations are out there for Dampers for a mid ranged budget?

odgreen

Well..... a dampener won't make your steering tight.
It's only job is to lessen bump steer.
So if you have loose steering you need to figure out what's worn out.

A stabilizer is a bandaid to a real problem.

jeepdewd

I have some Dethwobble. Im replacing the track bar, the bushings on the lower control arms and the sway bar bushings and links.
I figured while I was under there maybe get a new damper. Im not firmilar with them at all. I did a little reading a made a post here to get some answers.
I see a lot of aftermarket ones but never tested one.
My steering wheel is really easy to turn, I was wondering if a damper would simply make the wheel turn with slightly less ease in any way?

odgreen

No. That's called power steering. Lol
You have some death wobble?
That's not something you have "some" of.
It's either "holy Crap I'm going to die!" Or some vibration. Sway bar links won't affect Dw in any way. A stabilizer will NOT affect Dw in any way. I don't even have a dampener on either of my jeeps. They are truly not needed.
What you need to inspect is track bar, control arms, tie rod ends, ball joints and steering box.
That's where you're going to find the cause of Dw.

andrewmp6

Loose steering is from wore out parts,Some get lucky with just the tie rod ends but with the age of the zj it could even need a new steering box.

wingless

On mine I changed all the parts. It went from scary loose to proper handling. That included the steering damper. I used the nicer Moog parts.

dave1123

A very good way to check if it's the steering box is to disconnect the steering rod from it, then using your hands, see it there is any slack in the movement of the pitman arm. That is, try to turn it with your hand gently back and forth. There shouldn't be any looseness in it. None!

The adjusting screw on top of the box is only for aligning the ball tracks when it's put together. The 2 sections of the gear portion are 1/2 round grooves that ball bearings run in as the actual gear teeth. When these grooves get worn, they get wider and trying to get the looseness out by tightening this adjustment up with the steering centered will only cause the gears to bind at full lock. I hit a rock with the steering box with my Chevy 4x4 and actually shattered some of these ball bearings.

The steering damper is only a shock absorber to help cancel "kickback" when you hit something with one wheel. I drove my 97 ZJ for a month without one and never noticed a difference. I put a Monroe on it and on my 2000 WJ as well. The only time you might need a heavy duty one is for rock crawling or log jumping.