The steering on my '87 is very loose. I can feel every little bump/crack in the road and it throws me off while driving enough to scare me pretty bad haha. I was talking to someone from the forum and they said it may be the steering damper just needs to be replaced. I just want to know if that's something I can easily do myself or should I have my mechanic do it? Thanks guys!

Ridiculously easy, unless the nuts are rusty. Two nuts onto studs in the rack (which can also be unbolted).

quote Originally posted by ggfoster: The steering on my '87 is very loose. I can feel every little bump/crack in the road and it throws me off while driving enough to scare me pretty bad haha. I was talking to someone from the forum and they said it may be the steering damper just needs to be replaced. I just want to know if that's something I can easily do myself or should I have my mechanic do it? Thanks guys!

Yeah, like RWDPLZ said, it's two bolts... 13 or 14mm to remove them I think. You can see it attached to your steering rack if you lay down in front of your car and look under it. in the front. It makes a WORLD of difference... like unbelievably. Many people with older cars don't even realize that their cars have these. My VW Bus was the same way, almost undriveable... and then I replaced the shock on the front, and it was like a new car.

But you MUST get an appropriate steering stabilizer as a replacement unit. A small short shock absorber that fits will not do the job. Steering stabilizers are designed to function when mounted horizontally. Shock absorbers only work in a vertical position, and will not function correctly if used in a horizontal mounting.

quote Originally posted by ggfoster: The steering on my '87 is very loose. I can feel every little bump/crack in the road and it throws me off while driving enough to scare me pretty bad haha.

My experience has been diffferent than those who have posted so far. First, GM installed the steering damper to help dullen the kick back in the steering wheel from having used a suspension system that had too much scrub radius. The center of the tire contact patch on the pre-88's is 50 mm (2") outboard from where the tire actually pivots on the ground. It doesn't sound like much but that 2" acts as a lever magnifying every road irregularity and sending it back through the steering wheel as kick back. The damper's purpose is to take the sharpness out of the equation.

Obviously it takes some road feel out as well, so many people have experimented with gaining some road feel back by removing the damper, including myself. The result isn't looseness in the steering, rather greater sensitivity. If you have looseness, you'll have to better describe what you mean in order to get a proper diagnosis. If you mean that the car wanders while you keep the steering wheel straight, or if you mean that you can turn the steering wheel slightly side to side without any response at the road wheels, then you most likely have worn out inner and/or outer tie rods, and/or steering rack bushing, and/or wheel bearings. It could also be that the preload on the pinion shaft isn't set correctly and you have too much clearance between the worm on the pinion and the teeth on the rack. Lastly, it could be that the entire rack housing has corroded and failed under the mounting straps as occurred to one PFF member recently.

To test for worn tie rods and/or rack bushings, simply lock the steering column, grab a front wheel at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions and wiggle quickly and with some force. If you feel any clunking at all, then check to see where it's originating from while someone wiggles the wheel for you. That will tell you which component is worn. Repeat the same test on both sides. If everything is tight, then grab the top of the wheel and shake in and out to see if it's the wheel bearings. Again, there should be very very little movement in the bearings. If that's not it, then post back here and I or someone else can "steer" you in the next most likely area that's causing the loosness.

Any thoughts on what the combination of dumping the damper and moving to a high positive offset wheel might have on steering sensitivity - that is, improve sensitivity without magnifying road feedback too much?

[This message has been edited by thesameguy (edited 02-04-2013).]

That is a combination that would work very well. It would reduce the scrub radius making it easier to turn the wheel, and reduce the leverage that bumps would have on the spindle in the steering plane. The key would be to find a high offset wheel in a width that would move the centerline of the tire inboard by as much as 50mm over stock, and yet maintain the outboard side of the wheel flush with the fender lip. It would be fairly easy to figure out what that combination is, though I doubt it would be a standard size.

I removed them from both Fieros and both Mercedes SLs I owned. Makes the steering easier and faster to me. I regard them as usless dead weight. If yours feels 'loose', it could be you just have a worn out rack.

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: I removed them from both Fieros and both Mercedes SLs I owned. Makes the steering easier and faster to me. I regard them as usless dead weight. If yours feels 'loose', it could be you just have a worn out rack.

Yeah, the steering stabilizer definitely helps "hide" issues...

My car has wider tires a perfect alignment and top quality all newer suspension. The stabilizer did make a noticeable difference. 87 se 2.8

I see what you're saying Bloozeberry. When I say "loose" what I mean is when I hit a bump in the road, I feel it so much that I tend to try and correct it and end up over correcting usually. Not spinning out over correcting, but I do tend to swerve everywhere when it happens. I found a new steering damper on rockauto.com. Seems to be very inexpensive and since I'm getting feedback that it will be rather easy to install I am going to try that to see if it works out. Appreciate the help everybody.

Based on your description, I would suspect something is worn or out of alignment in your front suspension. Also, if the air pressure in your front tires is too low, it will increase steering feedback (and increase steering effort).

While a worn-out steering damper will result in more steering feedback, it shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as you described.

To give you an example, I removed the steering damper from my Fiero in 1999, because it ruptured and was basically useless anyway. After freshening up the suspension and getting the alignment reset, the steering kickback was noticeably reduced. Later on, I upgraded to low-profile tires on aftermarket wheels (aired up to 40 psi), and steering kickback (what little there was) practically disappeared.

With the current setup, I get plenty of road feel, but very little kickback. I'm not trying to brag, but just wanted you to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Best of luck!

Ok so this could very well be a suspension issue which is arguably a lot more expensive. Hmm...I'll try the damper anyway and then go the route of suspension/alignment if that doesn't work.

Also, how much camber should be on the front wheels? Mine are cambered out very noticeably and I didn't know if it is suppose to be that way or what.

Poor wheel alignment can definitely cause your symptoms, so that's what I'd concentrate on first. Any alignment shop will have the specs in their machine, but here they are for your car:

Camber:

'84 - '87 front: +0.5 deg +/- 0.8 deg
'84 -'87 rear: -1.0 deg +/- 0.5 deg

Toe:

'84 - '87 front and rear: +0.15 deg +/- 0.1 deg (positive values are toe in, not toe out)

Caster:

'84 - '87 front: +5.0 deg +/- 2.0 deg