Steering Damper?

If your also planning to kick the front end out chances are you won't need one otherwise you will, if you don't kick the front end out the steering will be VERY heavy turning right but not as bad to the left. If you decide to put one on I have a set up off my Shadow 1100 that should fit, send a PM to me at tedandlila@peoplepc.com, mine works just fine since I had it kicked out 5 deg's

I've never found one necessary on this combo. If the neck bearings are snug not floppy and the front tire in balance you should be good to go. A damper just slows down your steering and eliminates (desirable) road feed back.
If a nose wiggle is constant and cannot be controlled with both hands on the bars, that is the time to consider a steering damper.

Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars

Lonnie....

Please see my post under R1200C steering.

Thanks!

Jim

The R1200c has a different type of front suspension. I have no experience with the Telelever front ends. I think there are front end mods available for this suspension that may smooth things out.

I do know that many earlier Beemers require a damper either due to trail or just because some have very narrow bars thet do not offer enough leverage for the pilot to control head shake.

Lonnie

Lonnie....

I removed one end of the damper strut to see if it was still stiff to push and pull. It seems like it is. It is a COFAP 22001; 2601-10-D-01 strut. Supposedly used on VW's way back when. Got it from Lowell Neff 4 years and 60K miles ago. I mount if from just above the right cylinder head mounted to a metal plate attached to the front top sidecar mount and then to a Pokie mount on the front fork. The mounting bolt threads for the sidecar mount had worn a bit, and it was coming loose. Therefore, the wobble. At least I thought. I replaced the bolt, nut and lock washer, tightened up everything and it still wobbles. I am starting to think steering head bearings, but the Clymer book does not even show these bearings in their book. My mounting bracket on the sidecar mount might be getting some metal fatigue, and that may also be the cause. I am going to jack up the front end and see how much free play there is in the front wheel with no weight on it. Do you have a source for the above mentioned strut? It is 20" long, hole to hole fully extended with a hime joint on one end. Thanks in advance.

Jim

Jim,
The VW dampers I have only extend to about 18" and none of them have a heim joint end. There are two types. One has a threaded hole in the end casting. The other has an angled shaft. Both have a rubber shock bushing at the other end.
I do have another longer damper that has 3/8" heim joints at both ends. This damper measures 18" closed and 26 1/2" (c to c) when fully extended.
The only damper (that I know of) that looks like the VW but uses a heim joint on one end is the Harley sidecar damper. I don't have one in stock so don't have the dimensions. It also uses a rubber bushing on one end.

Lonnie

Lonnie....

Thanks for the info. I jacked up the front end and got the wheel off the ground, and I believe it is the steering head bearing. Wheel very "loose" back and forth under no load. At about 25K we did the same test and found the wheel to have some resistance to "loose" when jacked up and free from the ground. Will tighten bearing, there is a bolt to do this if you can get to it, and will report later. Appreciate your input to this wonderful problem. This rig went from rock steady to loose as a goose overnight. I think the steering bearings loosened up when the threads on the upper mount bolt wore out and everything got loose. Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. You just can't beat it.

Jim

Jim there's really no way the stem bearings can't "just loosen up" they are locked in with a lock washer and lock nut, but you probably already know this, if they were just replaced then there's a possibility that the top race wasn't seated all the way and a road shock seated it and everything became loose, if you have ball bearings they have a nasty habit of creating a pocket because the bearings for the most part are in the same place while traveling and will tend to self center and creating handling problems, the looseness you describe indicates that a bearing is broken, usally this can be felt in a back and forth movement with the wheel off the ground, but no matter what it is it will be interesting to read what you find.

Stay tuned!

I found out if you loosen the pinch bolt on the steering neck and take a punch and preload the steering neck bearings it will act as a dampner. also if you get steering wobble instead of a 4 point hook up from sidecare to cycle add another and the more stiff connection between sidecar and cycle=less wobble-worked for me-also tow in not right can be bad for wobble I hear

OK, after through testing, we have the following:

You can't tighten or loosen the bearing bolt without heating it to about 250 degrees F, and you can't use a torch, you must use a heat gun or something else. I don't think a heat gun goes that hot, but I don't have one anyway.

I got to the bearing bolt, but you can't budge it as they use forever loc tite, thus the heat gun.

But, we found the Pokie mount on the front fork to be a bit flexible. The bolts were tight, but it was still flexing. Getting new, shorter, bolts tomorrow and installing. This may actually be the problem.

Hate to say this, but it was really obvious when you grabbed the damper and twisted it a bit. The pokie mount flexed about a 16th or so which would magnafy quite a bit at the bar ends. By the way, getting the cap off the access hole to the bearing bolt is rather interesting. It has a small bolt in the center with an o-ring under it to keep out mositure. The cap itself has an o-ring around it. You can unscrew the bolt, and it will come out. But it doesn't tighten. To get the cap off, you really can just unscrew the bolt a bit until you have enough to grab, and then tug like hell. If you use a bit of pry under the lip as you do this, it will come out. Gotta love those Germans!

More later.

uber

Don't know for sure, but the loose/flexing Pokie mount might have been the problem. That, and a fairly uneven street where we have been doing the testing. Tightened the Pokie mount with a slightly shorter bolt and washers for spacers and no more Pokie mount flex. Rode down the block and back and it does feel better, but I need to get it on the slab or somewhere I can get up to speed to really tell. Maybe the bearings are still good. Who knows? Anyway, thanks for everyone's input and advice. Hope I can do the same for you someday.

Uber

Ok, so I took the front wheel to the shop for a balance test. It was fairly well balanced, but they found the front wheel bearings to be shot. As the tire was starting to wear (more than 20K on an 880) I had a new tire and bearings put in and a fresh balance. Took it home and installed everything, and guess what, it still wobbled. I rode last night to work on I95 to get some smooth pavement and some speed. The wobble decreased as the speed went up, but not entirely. Came home and went to bed. Got up this morning and rode to Costco. It wobbled like crazy, but I noticed it seemed to be the sidecar wobbling the bike. I got home and just happened to look at the hacks tire. a 15" by as wide as 2" chunk of tread all the way down to the steel core was missing. I guess that could cause a wobble. Found a replacement tire and getting it mounted tomorrow morning. Everything should be good as new. Now why didn't one of you, my brothers and sisters, tell me to check the hack's tire???

Uber, as dumb as they come.

Had that happen with a new 6ply steel belted Pirelli tire in 1973. Newport,OR and no Pirelli dealers anywhere nearby. Last Pirelli I ever bought.

A steak sized chunk came out down to the steel belt on the inside side of the tread where it wasn't apparent to the eye. That was the last place I looked too.
First place I'll look the next time I get a ghost wobble. lol

Lonnie