Steering Stabilizer for 2WD

[Wgesnerjr]

I have a bad vibration at 70MPH. All new steering linkage when restored 3 years ago. Had the wife turn the wheel and I watched and there is no play in the front end. all looks tight.

3 Recent front end alignments and tire balancing are not solving it. I have had it at 2 different shops with no better results. I am running VERY wide tires (295/50 15) on the front and rear so I'm thinking this may help.

LMC shows a steering stabilizer kit for 2WD trucks. Has anyone used this? If so, how is it? Can you post pictures?

Normally their diagrams are good. But cannot tell how this mounts and where to. Thought about calling them, but the last time I asked for Tech support, it caused more aggravation than help.

[Wgesnerjr]

This is where I got the idea from. It does mention wider tires at the end.

[Palf70Step]

I have not seen anyone I know use one, but it does make sense. Have you rotated the wheels at all to make sure there is not some iffy-ness with one of the rims?

[fordguy40]

Adding a steering stabilizer was a popular mod on 2nd generation Ford Lightnings initially, which run a 295 tire, but that was more to combat the tires' tendency to wander or follow the crown in the road if I remember right. Might help, but I'd be hesistant to throw one on to mask a vibe problem where there shouldn't be one.

Is it possible your rotors are warped? Wheels torqued correctly? Have the tires been road force balanced?

[irl104]

I put one on my 1968 1 ton. I would get a wobble that would start and not stop until I came almost to a stop while driving. It was uncontrollably dangerous to drive. Looking on the forums here I found possible solutions. I checked to make sure the shock holes were not oblong. I replaced new shocks. Rebalanced the tires. So I bought one as a last resort. It has worked, knock on wood.

[RodnRudy]

I just removed a stabilizer from my 77 that was on it when I bought it. Removed it to have better access to the fuel pump area from beneath the truck. I wondered myself why there would be one on a 2wd truck. I saw one also on a crew cab 2wd that I took a part off of. I had a 79 K10 that had the stabilizer from the factory but that was a straight axle truck. I remember one day driving down the highway at about 55 and all of a sudden the 79 went into a serious wobble. The stabilizer had given up the ghost. So I'm going to leave it off for now and see how it drives when I can get it back out on the road. As to how it is attached, mine has the bracket with the u bolts clamped to the passenger side of the center link and the other bracket bolted to the inner frame rail on drivers side.

[Wgesnerjr]

Thanks for all the ideas.

This has been a problem since I restored and put it back on the road. (I never drove it before as I got it with no engine)

During restoration, I put brand new American Racing rims, brand new Cooper Cobras, Freshly turned rotors. Wheels torqued to 100 Ft/Lbs as per American Racing. Torqued again after 100 miles. Driveshaft was balance at a drive line shop and new u-joints installed. Stock springs and new shocks. I did add a factory front sway bar. Original 85 steering box.

Once on the road, it took me a while to get it on the freeway, but noticed the vibration right away. Had alignment checked and tires re-balanced. Still there next time i was on the freeway. Used a different shop for another check of the alignment and balance tires again. Still there.

I too would rather not mask a problem with the stabilizer. Don't want to spend the money anyway.

We did the turn the wheel thing again today and I did see the upper part of the steering box/frame moving side to side. I am wondering if this is the same type of stress big 4WD tires put on the frame? I have read where they can fracture the frame near the holes. I do not see any cracking but I suppose the movement could contribute to the vibration.

[fordguy40]

Offroad Design makes one of those 2wd braces, too. Haven't pulled the trigger yet, but it couldn't hurt to have a little extra beef in that spot.

[Wgesnerjr]

So I ordered the stabilizer on the 2nd, it arrived Saturday morning. Pretty good from Southern California to Atlanta.
Took it out of the Box and it looked pretty beefy, but it wasn't painted but did come with all the hardware. Started test fitting it and could tell right away it wasn't gonna just bolt on. It was gonna need some finagling.

[Wgesnerjr]

It goes from the front two steering box bolts to the crossmember under ther radiator. I get the concept of keeping the frame from twisting but it will need modification to work.

The two bolts with blue tape are the ones that need to be removed. ( the other two are bumper bracket bolts) The stabilizer came with longer bolts but no washers. I just reused the original washers and swapped out the bolts for the longer ones. I had the truck is sitting on ramps so the suspension was at ride height.

[Wgesnerjr]

Still the center bolt (which, by the way is HUGE) would not line up.
The stabilizer was hitting the crossmember and would not line up, so there had to be some clearanceancing to be done. Luckily I have a ever trusty angle grinder with a 4 inch deathwheel.

[Wgesnerjr]

A few minutes later and there was no contact with the crossmember. Problem solved. But this showed another issue, the center bolt would not line up without some persuasive coaxing. Once secured in the bench vice and a few whacks with a 5 lbs sledge, it got on board with the program and we could move on. The brake line clamp bolt was interfering, so I drilled a second hole slightly lower and everything cleared like it was made to be there.

[fordguy40]

That's the Autofab brace, right?

[fordguy40]

Glad to hear the issue wasn't something major.

[v30crewcab]

my friend has cooper tires on his truck, they keep cracking around the bead area. he's had them warrantied and the new ones do it as well. turned me off on running them. his don't balance well either.

[Wgesnerjr]

That's disappointing to hear about the coopers. So far I've liked them. Really wanted BFG Radial T/A's but thought I would save some dough with the coopers. Dang it!

[SCOTI]

My dually ('89/2wd) has 2 braces that connect the front frame rails to the center of the x-member. Seems those would be like the Ridetech pieces & a good addition to that Autofab brace.

On mine, the OE braces interfered w/the Ridetech Musclebar which required some creativity on the install.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by Wgesnerjr

That's disappointing to hear about the coppers. So far I've liked them. Really wanted BFG Radial T/A's but thought I would save some dough with the coppers. Dang it!

I have always had good luck with Coopers when I bought them. All brands can have ooops once in a while (or more often like Firestone). Never had a crack issue and they always seemed to wear well. I will say though I have switched vehicles after about 20K on those that I had them on, but I didn't change vehicles because of the tires.

[russellmarling]

At my repair shop, we only sell Coopers at customer request now. I've had so many broken belts and noise concerns that it just isn't worth trying to sell them and ending up with an unhappy customer.

[LT7A]

Wg, thank you for documenting your follow-up efforts. I had initially skipped this thread because I wondered why two wheel drive might need a steering stabilizer. But I decided to check it out and am glad I did. If / when I have the front end apart it looks like it would be worth adding the brace. Even though your major problem is probably the tire or tires, it's still is interesting to me how much of a difference the brace made. I plan on running 275s, so not quite as wide as you have, but still probably worth the effort to brace the front end.

[Encinoman45]

I had installed that Autofab brace in my truck but ended up taking it off again in frustration. It was nowhere close to fitting properly so I had to do the same grinding and modifying to get mine to somewhat fit, and to top it all off, it threw off my alignment somehow.

[kglowacky]

I need to look up the brand of brace I installed on my 78. It bolted right up and all the hardware was there. I was convinced to install this as a support so thaty the steering box holes would stay in tack also.

Update. I bought mine from OFFROAD Design. Carrbondale. col.
Part Number. GU9001-2wd 1

It fit perfectly. No grinding. just bolt6 it on.