1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

[Richard M.]

Did the 1966/1967 L79 include the Steering Damper? Oil pan clearance? If it was included, but removed, would this be a concern?

Could you get N40 Power Steering with the L79?

Did N14 side exhaust clear the Damper and or N40 Cylinder?

While I'm at it, what about 1966/1967 Big Blocks? Same questions.

Rich

[Rick R.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Rich, I have a '67 L79 coupe / non power steering with damper car. The engine is original to the car, and I believe the damper is as well. No issues with oil pan clearance. I have seen L79 cars for sale with power steering, and the tech info/judging guide discusses the various power steering pump pulleys used on particular engines, and the L79 is mentioned in that discussion. My car is an A.O. Smith to which I added side exhaust. No clearance issues between the side exhaust and the damper.
On pages 188 and 189 of the '67 tech info/judging guide the "steering stabilizer" is addressed. Under "Base Engine and L-79-350 hp", the statement is made that " All non-power steering equipped cars have a steering stabilizing shock absorber that was dipped in gray paint." Under "Big Block", the statement is made that " Big block cars were not equipped with steering stabilizers." Hope this helps.

[Joe L.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Did the 1966/1967 L79 include the Steering Damper? Oil pan clearance? If it was included, but removed, would this be a concern?

Could you get N40 Power Steering with the L79?

Did N14 side exhaust clear the Damper and or N40 Cylinder?

While I'm at it, what about 1966/1967 Big Blocks? Same questions.

Rich

Rich------

As far as I know, all 1966-67 L-79 without power steering were equipped with the steering shock absorber (that's the nomenclature that GM used for the part). These engines used the "5 quart" oil pan, so there would have been no clearance issue. I highly doubt that there would be any problem if it is removed. After all, 63-65 with mechanical lifter small blocks and "6 quart" oil pans didn't use it and fared pretty well without it. So did 65-74 big blocks. Also, no 1969 or later Corvette with manual steering ever used a steering shock absorber.

As far as I know, power steering was available with 1966-67 L-79.

I don't think there was any clearance issue caused by N-14 exhaust. However, I'm not certain of this. I have not studied N-14 exhaust. As I've said before, I absolutely hate N-14 exhaust. I've dedicated myself to knowing as little about it as possible.

1965-74 big blocks with manual steering used no steering shock absorber.

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Thanks Rick and Joe.....

A friend owns a 1966 L79 with (added) N14, and he took it (Steering Shock Absorber(Damper)) off many years ago. He wants to reinstall it but wasn't sure if it will clear his oil pan and Ni4. It appears his oil pan is the 5 quart(4+1) pan so I see now that should not be a problem. He was unsure about the N14. He had it on before the added N14. His car has a slight shimmy at a certain speed 55mph). He's ruled out tires, wheel balance, steering parts, control arm bushings/bolts, ball joints, wheel bearings, etc. His entire front suspension is new.

After more research after I posted the questions, and after reading Joe's reply, I see that 1963 to 1965 Special High Performance/, H/L Cam Engines with the 6 quart oil pan(5+1), restricted the use of the Steering Shock Absorber(Damper), as well as N40 PS.

Since those cars did not include it, why did Chevrolet decide to include it on ALL other Non SHP/HL equipped Corvettes? Was there some inherent possibility that there may be possible steering "shimmy" under certain road conditions on the Non SHP/HL cars, and were there ever any reported steering problems with the SHP/HL 1963-1965 cars?

Rich

[Donald O.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Rich,
When I bought my 67 vert with L79 in 1985, the steering shock was not there, the brackets were though. The next year or so I found a correct dated unit at Bloomington and put it on. I tested the shock at work (I was at the Gabriel shocks tech center at the time) and it checked out perfect.
I noticed no difference between shock on or shock off at the time.
Don

[Gary B.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Don,

I have to think that the shock will have some beneficial effect on certain roads and surfaces.

Gary

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Thanks....

Don, do you have stock tires, ie 7.75x15 bias ply?

I did more research online and learned something. The steering can experience "bump steer" and "flighty" steering. A steering shock absorber helps to eliminate these effects.

It also states that these effects can be more prevalent when using larger tires. This car has 205-75R 15 radial tires. These are actually slightly narrower than the previous(70 series) radial tires that were on the car, however wider than stock bias ply.

Rich

[Leif A.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Did the 1966/1967 L79 include the Steering Damper? Oil pan clearance? If it was included, but removed, would this be a concern?

Could you get N40 Power Steering with the L79?

Did N14 side exhaust clear the Damper and or N40 Cylinder?

While I'm at it, what about 1966/1967 Big Blocks? Same questions.

Rich

Rich,
Everyone has answered your questions accurately. If you would like some pictures of my factory L79, N40, N14 car, I will forward some to you.

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Rich,
Everyone has answered your questions accurately. If you would like some pictures of my factory L79, N40, N14 car, I will forward some to you.

Hi Leif, Thanks for the offer but I won't need photos. I agree I have the info I need now with everyone's help.

I think a good exercise now would be to reinstall it and recheck. If still a problem my next thought is start swapping front tires one at a time with the spare.

Rich

[Rich G.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

My 66 L79 has the shock. I replaced right after I bought the car 15 years ago because occasionally it would go into bucking bronco mode when crossing rail tracks or hitting a bump. No problems since. I saved the old one, which looks original.

Rich

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Interesting info Rich, thanks.

As far as Big Block cars are concerned... Would it make sense that the heavier engine kept the front tires more firmly contacted to the road?

[Leif A.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Rich,
Just saw this on another site...'67 L79.

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Thanks Leif. I just sent that photo to him. DS pipe is in fact pretty close. He may need to adjust his.

[Duke W.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

Thanks Rick and Joe.....


Since those cars did not include it, why did Chevrolet decide to include it on ALL other Non SHP/HL equipped Corvettes? Was there some inherent possibility that there may be possible steering "shimmy" under certain road conditions on the Non SHP/HL cars, and were there ever any reported steering problems with the SHP/HL 1963-1965 cars?

Rich

Good question. It was probably included in the original design to reduce "road shock" on the more touring oriented configurations. As the years passed they must have concluded that it didn't do much, wasn't really necessary, and eliminated it as a cost saving.

But some cars DO require a steering damper, and one is my '88 MBZ 190E 2.6, which runs about 10 degrees caster and, of course, power steering. It's a deCarbon type (high pressure gas) damper, and as is typical of this design architecture, they maintain their original damping behavior until end of life when they fail completely, and there is usually obvious oil leakage due to failure of the gas/oil seals.

The first time this happened, the car went into a very violent shimmy, nothing like I have ever experienced before. The second time was on a trip back to LA from Phoenix. The shimmy is centered at about 60 MPH and is small plus or minus about 5 MPH, so I had to get from 55-65 real fast and keep it at 65 or better or slow down real fast to get below 55.

Fortunately they are easy to change, readily available, and relatively inexpensive... probably because a lot are sold.

High caster suspensions without a damping element can create problems, primarily excess kickback and shimmy. Another experience I had was with my Cosworth Vega. In the process of tuning the front alignment for track events I could only get about zero caster with negative one degree camber. Upon inspection, I realized that I could increase front caster by swapping the upper control arms side to side, and the minimum caster I could dial in was six degrees.

So I take it for a short test drive and do a hard right turn at the first intersecting street. It turned in like go kart, but had enough kickback to damn near break you arms, so it was back to the garage to swap the upper control arms back to their original positions.

Duke

[Richard M.]

Re: 1966 1967 Steering Damper Usage and Restrictions

The aftermarket pipe is in the way and won't allow the steering shock/damper to fit. The bracket fit but the end of the damper mount end won't even fit in the bracket hole without hitting the pipe. The pipe has a vertical tilt and probably not made to spec.

It seems the only solution would be to remove the pipe and try to bend it straight. We decided to forgo that exercise for now and swap front tires and recheck.

Right is Driver Side. Top is Forward. Note the pipe on right side of photo. After the bend from the exhaust manifold, it appears tilted forward. That bend is restricting the installation of the steering shock/damper.


Bottom is Driver Side. Right is Forward.


Driver Side - Left is Forward.