Having used the VW steering damper on the last four rigs that I have built and several for friends, I find myself helping another friend make his rig safer. Although I no longer have all the wonderful machine tools I have had in the past, I do still have a micro lathe hobby toy and a micro mill hobby toy that can still make the parts albiet very slowly.
It occurred to me that others on this forum might be interested in my way of doing it.
Below are some photos that show some of the work needed to adapt the VW unit to a motorcycle.
The first pic shows the 1/2 inch heim joint with the bushing that adapts it to the 10mm small end of the damper. Note
That I made a tapered end on the bushing, and cut a taper on one of the nuts. This is to allow the maximum swivel effect of the heim joint. The second nut is to lock things together.
At the bottom of the fork is a piece of angle steel drilled to match the brake caliper holes and with a boss welded to the bottom and drilled and tapped to accept the heim joint.
At the other end of the shock is a home made universal joint that is a piece of 1 inch rod drilled to 10 mm through its center. tabs are welded to it and drilled to accept a ten mm bolt that holds the big end of the shock.
A pair of matching tabs are welded to the sidecar in position to accept the damper.
Position is determined when the steering is at full left and the damper fully extended and the damper almost touches alongside of the front fender.
This should position it so that as it is turned to the full right position, the shock almost but not quite contracts to its limit. Properly done it should be so that the threaded length of the heim device allows final adjustment.
With the sidecars properly aligned and this device mounted, I can let go of the bars at any speed, slow or fast, without any head shake or deviation from a straight line on level ground.
That looks to be what I need !! PM sent.
GuzziSteve - 12/10/2012 7:58 PM
That looks to be what I need !! PM sent.
I apparently don't know how to use the personal message page, I clicked in your line and it disappeared.
please try again
Sent again, Thanks
How does the dampner affect normal steering? When I tried a dampener about 28 years ago it made steering very stiff. I've lived without one since and do not worry about the low speed shake.
Doug Hasert - 1/10/2013 11:29 PM
How does the dampner affect normal steering? When I tried a dampener about 28 years ago it made steering very stiff. I've lived without one since and do not worry about the low speed shake.
We use the VW damper on all our installations and it hasn't affected the steering effort on any of them; from a 500cc Royal Enfield up to a Kawasaki Drifter 1500.
When I got my rig set up, I was told the head shake was not bad, but it scared the hell out of me. I put a VW damper on the rig and it worked well for the money spent on it. I ended up putting a new tree on the bike and the bike is so much better now --- to me it was money well spent...
Txart - 1/12/2013 12:01 AM
When I got my rig set up, I was told the head shake was not bad, but it scared the hell out of me. I put a VW damper on the rig and it worked well for the money spent on it. I ended up putting a new tree on the bike and the bike is so much better now....I considered a damper for my Sportster/Texas rig, but, like Art, once I finally modified the steering appropriate for sidecar use (5* triple trees for my rig), the shake went away and no damper needed.
Lee
MB5+TW200+CRF250L+GTV300+INT650
XL883R w/Texas Ranger Sidecar
Zuma 50F + Burgman w/Texas Sidecar<Mrs. SwampFox
