[V8] Steering Damper replacement

[Dave Saad]

It's a pretty big job. You have to go through most of the motions of  
removing the rack in order to get the damper bolt off. I don't think  
you have to remove the hydraulic lines, but you do have to unmount  
the rack and the steering column.
I removed both distributors and coils, fuel lines, airbox, spark plug  
wire tray, and anything else that got in my way when I did my rack  
boot a while back.
Seems like you have to remove a transmission bolt too if you have an  
automatic.

May be a good time to have a look at your rack boot if you are in  
that far...


Dave



On Sep 17, 2007, at 10:41 PM, urq wrote:

> ... no direct BTDT on the V8, but I've had them fail on both my  
> Audi Fox and
> my BMW k1 ... in both instances the failure was obvious as it created
> dangerous steering oscillation in hard acceleration situations.   
> The parts
> appear to fail by a gas bubble building up near the piston, which  
> eliminates
> any damping in a small range of steering travel.  The Fox was  
> pretty violent
> on hard acceleration, but it went away when the throttle was lifted.
>
> I suspect the effect will be much less obvious on the V8 ... it has a
> similar steering setup to the T44s, which do not have the damper.   
> I suppose
> you could do the same test ... punch it in a safe area while going  
> straight
> ... only hold the steering wheel lightly and feel if the car is  
> trying to
> steer back and forth on its own.
>
> I suspect replacement of the damper might be a bit of a PITA, but  
> it might
> just take removal of the passenger side dizzy to change that ... I  
> do know
> it was a piece of cake on the '78 Fox ... :-)  The motorcycle was  
> quite a
> PITA though ...
>
> Steve B
> San José, CA (USA)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> I have a suspicion that my steering damper is bad.
> Anyone have some "Been There Done That" advice on
> a) how it feels and symptoms when it's bad and
> b) The steps  to replace it?
>
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