V41 Steering Stabilizer Recall Success

[Boz]

Mopar finally color coded them so they would get installed correctly. 18 minutes of work took 7 hours to get my ride back today. Never again going to a dealer for anything. Anyways - the stabilizer did firm things up on the steering response. Only noticeable difference is there isn’t as much “dead space” when it is centered. Before, I could make slight left and right turns on the wheel, and nothing would happen. Now, I can feel it almost immediately respond to input.

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[word302]

Mopar finally color coded them so they would get installed correctly. 18 minutes of work took 7 hours to get my ride back today. Never again going to a dealer for anything. Anyways - the stabilizer did firm things up on the steering response. Only noticeable difference is there isn’t as much “dead space” when it is centered. Before, I could make slight left and right turns on the wheel, and nothing would happen. Now, I can feel it almost immediately respond to input.

How would changing a stabilizer improve steering response?

 

[Boz]

How would changing a stabilizer improve steering response?

All a steering stabilizer does is absorb movement in the wheels and prevent unwanted side to side motion. As I said above, that dead space at center is now gone. There was a lot of play in the wheel before.

 

[Upsidwn]

Then there is still play in the wheel if that’s the case. Just because you may feel resistance from the stabilizer in that ‘dead area’ you felt before doesn’t mean the slop is now gone, it’s literally just masking it. I’d venture to say that 90% of people upgrading or not knowing about steering and are swapping stabilizers and brackets out to ‘fix’ issues need to figure out what’s loose, sloppy, or bad and fix that instead of masking the root cause.

Properly set up steering linkages (and track bar) on a solid axle vehicle are critical. You want links/bars and straight as reasonably possible (not a bunch of bends) good tight joints without plastic in them, a track bar and drag link with mounting points parallel and the same distance apart, solid brackets/mounts that don’t flex, correctly sized bolts torqued to the correct spec, and preferably (for JL’s anyway) a steel steering box with the correct hardware. Every Jeep forum ends up with hundreds of threads about steering play, wobble, dead zones and everything by else and argue about which band aid is the best to cover everything up when the real answer is to just fix the root cause of the problem.

Set it up right and do it right once and you don’t even ‘need’ a stabilizer. Yes I know on a proper setup they will dampen some jitter or whatever you want to call it, but almost everyone (most Offroad shops and even the factory/dealers included) end up using them as band aids to cover up other things that need fixed.

I’ve built and wheeled 6 rigs now with axle swaps, some with one tons, custom steering, etc on almost off them all over the east coast and every one I’ve ended up just ditching the stabilizer shortly after it gets trashed the first trip or two out wheeling and I’ve never had any problems after. My JL’s second trip out wheeling completely trashed the stock one, it’s now got a steersmart tie rod, drag link, MC track bar, and no stabilizer for 20k miles and it drives better than it did from the dealer lot on it’s tiny street tires to boot.

 

[word302]

All a steering stabilizer does is absorb movement in the wheels and prevent unwanted side to side motion. As I said above, that dead space at center is now gone. There was a lot of play in the wheel before.

Yeah, you’ve got some placebo going on. A stabilizer can’t get rid of dead space or play, it may make it feel tighter but it’s still there.

 

[Boz]

Yeah, you’ve got some placebo going on. A stabilizer can’t get rid of dead space or play, it may make it feel tighter but it’s still there.

I agree. I can still feel some play at the top, but it is noticeably less than before. It feels tighter now.

 

[word302]

I agree. I can still feel some play at the top, but it is noticeably less than before. It feels tighter now.

A stabilizer can’t reduce play.

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