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.

[Wgesnerjr]

So I thought about it and I really need to stabilize the frame before moving on to any other items.

I was looking at some options on the internet and came across the Ride Tech pair. (11369550) The go from each frame rail and bolt to the center of the cross member once you drill some holes. Besides being $250, it would be the better choice if I had 4WD, but it may be overkill for 2WD.

The second one is from Autofab (SBGK-2WD) and looks more like what I would need. Goes from the inside frame where the steering box bolts go through to the center of the cross member under the radiator. Well out of the way of the steering linkage and utilizes a factory hole. At $105 it is a better cost and is specific for 2WD. I ordered this one.

Will do a write up on installation and results.

[favor]

If ya add stabilizer watch p/s hose. Mine rubbed hose on left turn and could of wore a hole in hose had I not moved it. Check frame rivets at front crewmember. Holes can oblong from big tires.

[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.

[fordguy40]

That's the Autofab brace, right?

[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.

[Wgesnerjr]

Now its was time to make it look pretty. A little satin black Rust o leum paint hanging from my paintin' tree, and it was looking better. However, It was cold and rainy in Atlanta that day so I had to bring them inside and toast them in front of the fireplace to dry. The wife was not happy with the smell but after 30 mins, the paint dried and we were ready to move on. I don't know why this still shocks her. After 23 years you'd think she would be used to it. Here it is looking very Battlestar Galactic-ish for those that were around in the 70s.

[Wgesnerjr]

With the bolts painted as well, it was time for final assembly. The on line instructions said to leave everything loose. I did so and it made things so much easier. The way the stabilizer was made caused issues with using a ratchet so the old doubled up wrench trick was broken out to tighten the frame/steering box side.

[Wgesnerjr]

Finally the Ginormous center bolt was tightened with a socket and crecent wrench and it was done.

[Wgesnerjr]

Test drive.

So I took it out for a test run, got it up to about 70 to 80 miles an hour in everything felt much better. It had gone from absolutely vibrating to slightly vibrating. The chassis felt much different, it made the truck feel more solid. Cornering was absolutely better. The truck went from About to flip over to Possibly flipping over. I know it doesn't seem like much but it sure did make the truck feel a whole lot more solid over bumps and railroad tracks, etc.Now going through twists and turns was not like a Corvette but it sure was better than the wallering behemoth it was.

It's hard to believe that the chassis was flexing is much as it was. But now I can see that Anything that makes the chassis stiffer is an improvement. Although better, it still did not totally solve my problem.

[Wgesnerjr]

It rained alot here in Atlanta last night, almost a inch and a half overnight. Backing the truck out of the garage I actually went into the yard and wound up spinning the tires and throwing mud all over the back bedsides and wheelwells. Then once in the street there was a huge mud puddle and that got the front wheels all dirty. After the test drive, I went to the coin car wash for a quick cleaning. While soaping everything down and cleaning the white letters I did notice this slight bubble in the sidewall of the Cooper cobras.

I couldn't believe it.. These tires have like 6000 miles on them and it looks like the sidewall has bulge in it! I don't remember hitting anything so an interview of all drivers in my household commenced. Shockingly, no one owned up to anything.

Frustrated. I will be ordering a new tire tomorrow. UGH! This is probably the problem all long. However I am still glad I did the steering stabiliser. It was a lot of work and a good bit of money at $105 but I feel the truck is a lot more solid in feels a lot better when I'm driving it so it's not wasted money.

Would i do it again? Well, I probably would have liked the Ride tech system better had i known this would be an issue. While the body was off and the engine out, the ride tech system would have been a breeze to install. Now, with everything together, not so much. The Autofab piece is just fine..

[Wgesnerjr]

Yes, its the Autofab brace. Here is a link to the instructions.. https://autofab.com/p-28056-sbgk-ste...tructions.html

[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.