Fitting a steering Damper to a 2005 Patrol Wagon

[BradMully]

G'day All,
I am about to head off on a Gibb River adventure and i am in the process of replacing my steering damper. I say in the process because i have removed the tiny old one and tried to replace it with an Ironman one i purchased. The Iron Man version is much larger and the ends came fixed in place where as the one i removed had ball joints on the end. I have been unable to fit the ne one so i have sought another one from elsewhere, clearly specifying the make and model. Guess what??? The same type of Damper arrived today only this time the bolts came in a separate bag and not fitted.
Surely 2 different suppliers cant be wrong so am i just supposed to fit the bolts in and it will pull into line when i tighten it up? It also seems the bolt is larger than the original and does not feed all the way through.
As you can tell i am not very "Car SavvY" when it comes to this type of thing. Any help from the Patrol GUru's would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Mully

[Bigrig]

G'day Mully

Always asked that you post up an intro mate before asking questions etc - no harm done at all mate, but be good if you could slip over to the introductions section and just let us know a bit about yourself and your rig!!

Can't help with the GU side of it as I have a GQ, however no doubt someone will be along to help you out mate.

Sounds like you're in for a ripper trip!!!

Welcome aboard!!

[YNOT]

Welcome to the forum Mully.

There are 2 different sorts of dampers fitted to Patrol wagons. Pre 2002 had a "pin to pin" damper where the mounting bolts extend out either end of the damper, I suspect this is what I think you got from Ironman.
Post 2002 was fitted with an "eye to eye" damper where the mounting bolts/pins extend at 90 degrees from the damper. The EFS extreme damper I got for my 2003 GU wagon is this sort and came with the bolts/pins in a seperate bag. The pins when fitted do not pull right down into the mounting bracket, they are designed this way to keep the damper away from the mounting plates.

The photo below shows the "eye to eye" style of damper and how the pin fits. (thanks Snicko for the photo).

Tony

[BradMully]

Tony you are a legend and have just put my mind at ease :). The ones i received are the eye to eye type that you have in the photo. The bit that threw me was the fact it did not have ball joints on the end and the first one i received came fully assembled with the bolts fitted (at 90 degress from the damper as you mentioned). You are correct that the bolts do not pull right through and now i know they are not supposed to makes it all sit a little easier with me. I will have a crack at fitting it when i get home.

Much Appreciated
Cheers
Mully

[BradMully]

Just fitted my Iron man Steering Damper with no issues at all. Problem was one end went in through the top of the mounting bracket and the other end up through the back of the bracket. On the one i took off both ends came up from the back of the mounting bracket....common trap for young players i bet :)

Thanks to all for their help.

[Nissoj]

I have lifted my 2005 patrol with oldman emu... do I need to change the steering damper too?

[Stropp]

I have lifted my 2005 patrol with oldman emu... do I need to change the steering damper too?

no you dont but the standard one is not too flash so if you have the funds i would change it anyway.