Hydraulic steering damper for enclosed d

tractorman414

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Hi

I have a hydraulic steering damper fitted to my open D, this was quite straightforward to fit, but my good friend Mostyn Phelps is keen to fit one to his enclosed D, and we note many obsticles to fitting one in the "usual" place . Not wanting to re-invent the wheel, so to say, has anybody successfully fitted one to a D and is prepared to offer advise, detail, picture etc. that may help us

Bernard Jones
 

deejay499

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I fitted one to my Prince outfit which gave me even more problems than a solo. The general way is to come back to a bracket on the cylinder bolts or head steady, but the sidecar fittings got in the way, so I mounted it more sideways and used the crash bar to mount it. A photo was in MPH 746, centre page. I used a triangular plate bolted to FF2, mounting the damper on a bolt through the plate and SL3. Good luck
 

John Cone

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Why does one need to fit one, providing your headstock bearings are ok and correctly adjusted the standard damper is just fine.
 

john998

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Hello, Does an outfit need a hydraulic damper? Having said that two people have asked me recently how do I stop their outfit shaking it's head, one was so bad it was un ride-able.
Next question why does an outfit shake its head, and how to stop it. Regards John.
 

clevtrev

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Hello, Does an outfit need a hydraulic damper? Having said that two people have asked me recently how do I stop their outfit shaking it's head, one was so bad it was un ride-able.
Next question why does an outfit shake its head, and how to stop it. Regards John.
Most likely, a wrong tyre. Try a ribbed front tyre.
 

deejay499

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My Shadow outfit has a short top link, standard damper and square tyre and there is no trace of head shake, the enclosed ones with a chair seem to suffer from shake a bit more which may be down to the extra weight on the forks, and I have also fitted a short top link and hydraulic damper after upgrading the 'D' steering damper ( 2 discs) to all stainless set up. Sidecars are prone to head shake because of the castor action trying to make the wheel turn 180 degrees and you correcting it. Moving the wheel forward helps eliminate the problem. A worn solo tyre would add to it, and too little toe in would probably do the same, as the outfit pulls to the left and you correct by pulling to the right. Worth also checking the damper fitting, FT 127, into the headstock as there will be movement before the damper can work if worn.
 

bmetcalf

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Is FT127 the "torque stay"? I seem to recall that it has to have some slop there to work properly.
 

deejay499

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Hi Bruce. Yes FT127 is the small damper rod that fits into the headstock. For a solo, there has to be movement to allow the wheel to centralise, but I don't feel it is needed for an outfit, and both of mine are glued in place. For an outfit, it is worth jacking the front up and seeing how much movement there is before the damper works - you could be surprised.
 

tractorman414

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Why does one need to fit one, providing your headstock bearings are ok and correctly adjusted the standard damper is just fine.

Hi John, I will pass on Mostyns comment as follows :-

John Cone's response he seems to have overlooked the fact that
friction dampers suffer from "stiction" that being that they require a load
greater than that for which they are required to respond to thus resulting
in a loss of damping effect once they become "unstuck" hydraulic dampers
produce constant resistance from rest. So I think that they must be better
particularly when dealing with small oscillations which is what my machine
suffers from but I will check the head bearings.
 
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