James Duff Steering Stabilizer install. | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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James Duff Steering Stabilizer install.

Nadams01

Well-Known Member
Joined
October 29, 2019
Messages
135
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83
City, State
Castle rock, Colorado
Year, Model & Trim Level
1991 explorer eddie bauer
Hello all! I have seen allot of questions on steering stabilizers what they do, how do you install them, etc. I'm hoping this write up helps clear things up. I used a James Duff kit with brackets included, cost around 100 bucks. Make sure to buy a boot, mine didn't come with one. Most kits are going to include both brackets and small u bolts to bolt everything up properly.

Opinions on the JD kit:

Very nice welds,
Strong brackets ( attempted to break mine when checking lock to lock ),
No boot included, ( made me sad, I like the blue boot )
Bolts are a little small, ( Would recommend on upgrading to 8.8 bolts and using a bigger size like 1/2 or m12 )
Brackets are not powder coated.

Affect on drivability.

I have replaced all of my steering components, and my ball joints do not have play. I have replaced the steering gearbox as well. If you have loose steering components this will not help at all, it will negate the entire effect of the steering stabilizer which is to smooth out jerks from your steering linkage feeding back to the wheel. I have noticed quite a big difference in steering comfort, and not getting the piss scared out of me when I have hit bumps. The wheel doesn't move around like it used to, but your still going to feel real big bumps in the road. Another effect of the steering was making it slightly heavier, which I prefer as the stupid light steering provided by the pump doesn't give you much feed back. I am running Rancho RS5000 shocks, which after installing the stabilizer are much to stiff, thankfully I will be installing a JD 3 inch lift kit so that will be fixed. I have not taken it froadin yet, but will add to the post when I do. Over all it smooths out the driving experience vastly, making it much more relaxing when driving through roads at speeds that would normal move your wheel and jerk your hands. If you are lifting your explorer, the steering linkage geometry changes significantly so if your lifting your EX, it is recommended to add a stabilizer and get a dropped pitman arm.

Installation:

Tools required:
Drill,
3/8 bit or 1/2 if using bigger bolts,
recommend using a carbide bit or a bit with a pointy end, your gonna be drilling for a while if you don't
End wrenches for your hardware
Socket Wrench,
Sockets, preferably wobblily.

The hardest part of the installation is drilling out holes in the crossmember just below the oil pan. Ford in all of their infinite wisdom decided to roll the steel, making it much harder to drill into. Thankfully, we are not tapping these holes to thread them, so don't stress to much about getting it perfect. Make note of the brake line running down the front of the crossmember. DO NOT DRILL INTO THIS BRAKE LINE, you will have a bad day. Simply move the brake line out of the plastic holders, it is flexible but be gentle, its 30 years old and can crack. I moved mine out of all of the retainers and moved it up and out of the way. take your bracket that is shaped like an L, this is the bracket that will be mounting to the crossmember. The flat back part of the bracket moves behind the crossmember, and the long part of the L goes onto the driver side of the bracket. I went ahead and removed the sway bar, it makes it easier to get a c clamp ( 4 inch works well) to hold your bracket. The sway bar is 4 14mm bolts to the frame and 18mm nut holding the end links on. (Check your bushings while you have it off). Aligning the bracket is tricky, its never going to be truly flush against the crossmember but we can get it very close. I liked to have the portion of the L that bends out towards the passenger side below the curve in the cross member about 1 inch and I found I can get it very close to flush. Again, take your time and try to get it as flush as possible, many instructions say to have the bend in the bracket match the bend in the crossmember, but I found I couldn't get the backing to be flush. There is no " right position " just get it as close as you can. Once you feel confident with the position of the bracket, go ahead and make a punch in the crossmember using the whole in the bracket as your center. I got mine fairly close to the top of the curved part of the crossmember to make it as straight as possible and giving myself as much material to bolt to as possible. Again, your never going to get it perfect and if you try your going to drive yourself mad so get it as close as possible, take your time and be patient, this can be frustrating and you don't want a crossmember looking like swiss cheese. After you have made a clear indention with your punch it's time to start drilling. You don't have to keep the bracket held up while you are drilling for this stage. I am a mechanic and apprenticing technician so I have a lot of tools at my disposal, but I understand many of you have a garage and basic tools. I used a Milwaukee M18 drill on highspeed, and a pointed carbide bit. A normal drill will work just fine, but I highly recommend using a good 3/8 or 1/2 bit depending on if your upgrading your hardware or not. Lube the drill bit up with penetrating oil, do this often and keep the drill moving fast. Put firm pressure keeping it straight and moving fast. Remember to lube often, as a over heated drill bit will fail. Be patient, don't get frustrated, these are the hardest steps of the install. Take breaks as needed, beer helps. After finally getting through the crossmember, take your bracket and run a bolt and nut through to hold it. I found using a ratchet ( flex heads work well) with a deep socket to reach the nut down in the cross member and just use either a end wrench or a socket to tighten the bolt. Get it snug, not tight, were now going to use a C clamp to hold the back of the bracket to the crossmember flat so we can make our 2nd spot to drill. I slipped the C clamp over the steering linkage, and removing the sway bar as previously mentioned makes this much more barrable. Position the C clamp as close to the center of the bracket, giving us plenty of room for our drill. Check the back of your bracket face that mates to the crossmember and make sure its as flat as possible, and punch a hole on the front of the crossmember as far as you can on the bracket but giving yourself a .5 to 1 inch space from the end of it to make sure it keeps plenty of strength. Drilling this hole was much harder then the first hole, and your not gonna be flat but you can get pretty close when maneuvering around the crossmember and linkage. If you are replacing your linkage, I would recommend mounting this bracket when you have it off, makes it much easier. Make sure your bracket is tight to the back of the crossmember, as you will be drilling in a hole that. Make your punch and start drilling, using the same method as before, Just keep an eye and look on the back of the crossmember and make sure your bracket is tight. After you have the whole punched through the hard work is done! Remove your C clamp and run your bolt and nut through. With the 3/8 hardware I tightened it to Good-n-Tight, roughly 40 foot pounds. Make use of end wrenches or ratchets to get into hard to reach areas. Take your 2nd bracket, this goes over your steering linkage and mounts with U bolts. The bracket has slotted holes so you can move the U bolts around, not sure what size would fit this bracket better, but with having 4 bolts holding it I would be more concerned with the hardware on our bracket mounted to the crossmember. Mount this loosely with the nuts facing down and in front of the tie rod adjusting sleeve on the passenger side. We want to be able to slide this up and down our drag link to adjust the length of the stabilizer when our wheels are facing straight forward to make sure we don't bottom out our stabilizer at full lock. Take your stabilizer with the rod that can move in and out and slide your cup and first bushing with the skinny part facing towards the hole in the bracket. Then take another bushing and cup mirroring our first set with your nut. When tightening this nut it likes to rotate the whole shaft, so hold that while you get this tight. ( using any impact from a cheap craftsmen to a Milwaukee will make this much easier but its not needed) Tighten this until the bushings barely squish together. Don't over tighten this as it can damage the bushings. Go ahead and extend the body of the stabilizer roughly 5 inches out, and slide the bracket on the drank link to the center of the threads the stabilizer. I highly recommend tightening these bolts with the stabilizer not in it, gives you way more room. Tighten these in a X pattern to make sure it sits on the drag link and make them about as tight as the first set of bolts. Now repeat your steps for mounting the bushings as before, with the skinny part facing the hole in the bracket and tighten like the other side. Now its time to check for clearance, having a buddy steer while you look at the steering stabilizer to make sure it doesn't bottom out or over extend. I would do this without the power steering pump, because I bottom mine out without hearing my tech yell at me to stop. Nothing broke, and the bracket just slightly bent so props to JD welds. Adjust the length of the steering stabilizer by moving the bracket on the draglink accordingly.

Over all, the steering stabilizer helps a ton with steering comfort and control. It will not fix play in your steering. If I was going to do it over, I would have gotten my bottom hole closer to being flush, and higher up on the cross member. I hope this helps you guys out with your install.

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I’m looking at the James Duff kit and this was very helpful. Thank you.

Are you still happy with it?
 






I’m looking at the James Duff kit and this was very helpful. Thank you.

Are you still happy with it?
Yes, very happy with it. With their lift kit installed 3 inch stage one I have not had any lifted vehicle ride better then this one.
 






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