I have long been in the camp that says a stabilizer is just a band aid and would never be on my car. Well, we are in the middle of a 2000 mile road trip in the A and the rough CA roads had me decide to try one. I had no wobble, but the feeling of hitting rough patches at 75 was a little spooky at times, something I could live with around town, but after 1100 miles it was annoying. Purchased one from So Cal at Billetproof and threw it on today at the Joe Bailon car show in Auburn. About a 5 minute install once I had the tools laid out. Huge difference! Really isolates a lot of the big bumps from the steering wheel. Barely noticeable visually also. Just my two cents!
Good to know... Any idea if one could be hooked up to a model A using stock radius rods? Been looking into one myself but, all info I can find show them hooked to Curtis style rods or 4 bar front ends.
I have the So-Cal ($20 @ Swap meet) stabilizer on my Model A. I made a bracket for it on the frame. The tie rod is too skinny for the supplied clamp...wrapped a skinny peace of sheet metal around it... (I shortened the bracket ~1" later to avoid hitting the tie rod) Works great!
This is a combination Panhard mount and stabalizer mount on a radius rod on my 30 coupe. The radius rods are 41 Merc. Didn't like the tie rod clamp mounting for the other end on the tie rod, so I fabricated a clamp that would utilize a Heim style end. Fabricated out of a s**** of solid steel (billet ???) Canuck
Smooth action at all speeds on my '29 coupe. Sometimes depends on road condition I need one on my RPU. '29 seems to 'road walk' alot less. Thumbs Up!
Just got home from our trip. GPS showed 43 hours moving and 1965 miles. The stabilizer is even more awesome than I thought. Before, I couldn't wait to get out of the car after 100 miles. Popping advils and whining about my back and shoulders. Today, we did 700 miles in about 18 hours just stopping for gas and I could still be driving! We will both be forty next month and have set a goal of 50,000 miles by 50. Before the stabilizer I was saying this one long trip is good enough for me!
This thread shows (I think) the damper attached to the frame on the driver's side and the drag link on the other. Another pic shows driver's side frame mount also, but the other end attached to the tie rod. Is there a "correct" or preferred mounting arrangement? Thanks
My logic was mount the fixed mount to the radius rod and rod end to the tie rod. Used the p***enger side radius rod as there was more room there, no pitman arm moving around. Mounted the rod end to the tie rod as it took less room and gave more room for the drag link to move. Using the radius rod for one mount ment there was no up and down movement of the cylinder during suspension movement and the resulting movement in the damper. It only acts on steering movement. That,s my .02 anyhow. Canuck
Here's the one I whipped up a while back. No death wobble, but now that I have read this I'm going to give it a try. ========================================
I had two very low speed "death wobbles" on my A , both in a rough parking lots going less than 10 mph, but it freaked me out so much I installed the "band aid". I had never had a wobble at speed, but it was so violent at 5-10 mph, I knew it would break something or I would lose control of the car if it ever happened at highway speed. I have never had another incident since installing the SoCal stabilizer AND, just like jer11ren said, it seems to isolate the steering from the bigger bumps and makes for an easier drive. Band Aid or not, I'm leaving mine on. BOutlaw
I have used one on every dropped axle car I have built. It always works! You can just see it in this picture of my roadster.
If anyone is interested, here are some parts numbers: 1960-77 VW Beetle (MOOG MOSSD8) Cofap 22001 1704 4-A-06 May be a saving over ordering from a Speed Shop. Canuck
"mount the fixed mount to the radius rod and rod end to the tie rod.Using the radius rod for one mount ment there was no up and down movement of the cylinder during suspension movement and the resulting movement in the damper. It only acts on steering movement." Canuck, Thanks for the info. Never considered the damper movement from the drag link-good thinking. Thanks also for the parts numbers.
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