Remove steering damper from drag link

It's being a real PITA. I've got a HF TRE puller and have been slowly tightening it down, spraying PB, then beating on it with a hammer.

My question is... do I need to remove the steering damper from the axle first? I want to make sure I am not hurting the damper trying to push it off the drag link while it's still attached to the axle. Thanks!

I just did one today.

Are you swapping the drag link?

You should be able to remove the dampener from the mount then remove the drag link. Then get the mounting pin out.

If you've beat on it with a hammer you've likely destroyed it anyway. Get a new pin.

Get one of these and you wont' have to beat your parts to death. People do it, I don't.

That's the puller I'm using currently. Yes I'm replacing my TREs (so tie rod, drag link, and TRE at pitman), I've already got the tie rod out and it worked well. Now I am trying to remove the entire drag link. I figured I should remove the steering damper from the drag link first, then remove the drag link TREs from the pitman and knuckle.

I've removed the cotter pin and castle nut @ the drag link. Are you saying you removed the damper from the axle, then removed the entire drag link and disconnected the damper afterwards?

Also, I've only beat on the drag link so my damper should be fine still.

There should be a nut at the other end of the pin, remove that nut and the dampener should come off the pin/mount.........then remove the drag link.

I've had the dampeners be stuck no amount heating, hammering or using those tie tie tools would free it, had to replace the long tie rod/ drag link it connects to.


Usually just tap the drag link with a hammer and it pops right out. Like how tie rod end are supposed to do.

But those dampeners can be so stuck you'll have to replace what it is connected to


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I often use a tool that looks like this to bust the tapered joint

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-Outer-Tie-Rod-Remover/dp/B0002SRGTI

The old adage is "hit what it goes through" which eliminates the need for a lot of special tools and typically works just fine. I mean lets say you're changing ball joints, if you hit in the right spot there is usually almost no indication that the knuckle was whacked to break the taper. It's when people do stupid stuff like whale on a flat flange somewhere on the knuckle and deform the knuckle that it starts getting ugly.

Yeah I said fk it and pulled the damper off with the drag link. I'm just gonna replace both. At ~200k miles on the original damper, can't hurt.

Probably for the best, new parts reassembly usually flys by while a stubborn bolt can cost hours and hours l.

It was a 91or 92 XJ that I couldn't get the dampener off, even took it to a shop as much as I hate to do that, they couldn't get it so I did a "it and the horse you rode in on" fix replacing whatever was associated. This was all in an attempt to fix the lose steering, which after over a decade of fiddling turned out to be the bloody steering gear I replaced 4-5 times at least. Last gear I think was a used ZJ gear. The rebuilt unites I bought in the early 2000s were ,as the forum learned later, never fully rebuilt. New seals and fresh coat of paint while the insides were as worn out as my original gear.


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LOL, I had no problem removing mine, in fact I am not sure why it had not fallen off. The rubber bushings were 100% MIA on mine. I found it looking for a new rattle when I was braking at low speeds. The old SS was still good, but I could not find new bushings.

Green Mesa XJ said:

I've had the dampeners be stuck no amount heating, hammering or using those tie tie tools would free it, had to replace the long tie rod/ drag link it connects to.


Usually just tap the drag link with a hammer and it pops right out. Like how tie rod end are supposed to do.

But those dampeners can be so stuck you'll have to replace what it is connected to


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Click to expand...

Ecomike said:

LOL, I had no problem removing mine, in fact I am not sure why it had not fallen off. The rubber bushings were 100% MIA on mine. I found it looking for a new rattle when I was braking at low speeds. The old SS was still good, but I could not find new bushings.

Click to expand...

My 85 XJ was easy to change this part. And it's had far more abuse.

Just changed mine. Had to use a 6 point wrench at the axle side (17mm iirc) to hold the nut on the back. I just went with zj tierods as they were only marginally more expensive. ATF + Acetone worked for me after PB blaster failed

shmicah said:

Yeah I said fk it and pulled the damper off with the drag link. I'm just gonna replace both. At ~200k miles on the original damper, can't hurt.

Click to expand...

this is what I did, a new drag link is cheap enough I just bought a new one

md21722 said:

I often use a tool that looks like this to bust the tapered joint

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-Outer-Tie-Rod-Remover/dp/B0002SRGTI

The old adage is "hit what it goes through" which eliminates the need for a lot of special tools and typically works just fine. I mean lets say you're changing ball joints, if you hit in the right spot there is usually almost no indication that the knuckle was whacked to break the taper. It's when people do stupid stuff like whale on a flat flange somewhere on the knuckle and deform the knuckle that it starts getting ugly.

Click to expand...

This.
A little intelligently-applied percussion solves the problem every time.

I wonder if using the power steering in park, back and forth with the bolts off might do the trick. Using the power steering as a tool is often the only way to get the bolts off when pulling a front axle shaft.

I've had some SEVERELY stuck steering dampers to deal with over the years- one that had all the hardware loosened by an owner and had been driven that way in hopes that it would loosen up. For years. No, it didn't.

Get a pickelfork. Hammer it in, if possible. Failing that, use something along the lines of a 2-jaw press, whatever it takes to put dynamic tension on the fastener in question, in the direction you want it to go.

Hose it down with PB Blaster, AT fluid/Acetone mix, or Kroil penetrant (in ascending order of how well they've worked for me).

Apply a couple heavy wacks to the stuck item, in the direction you want it to go. NOTE: if it's a threaded part, thread a nut onto it to protect the threads- you may not want to reuse the part, but if you munge the threads you're making it hard on yourself).

Add some more tension, if possible. Add more chemical. Beat on it some more.

Now, beat the hell out of whatever the fastener is going through. IE: if a drag link, beat the heck out of the draglink itself, at right angles to where you want the item to go. The idea is to set up (very small) pressure waves and ripples in the seized material.

Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. "Ripples in solid steel, from a hammer". I agree... now go try it anyway.

In so doing, I've have pitman arms that VERY large guys who couldn't get the item off with the breaker (and had broken several already) pretty much fall off after a couple love taps. They don't necessarily have to be heavy taps either- start moderate, then build from there.

One guy brought a pitman arm on his steering box into the local Oreilly while I was there. He was so fed up with trying to get it loose all day he was just going to buy a new pitman as well. He'd been trying to free it with it bolted to his Dodge. I broke it loose on the floor of the store, with a pipe wrench stepped on by my size 9.5 foot (and while I AM heavy, I'm NOT *that* heavy!). Got a nice bottle of Jameson out of that one.

After every couple half dozen or so taps, see if you can add tension to the tool/press you're trying to push the stud out with. Bet you can!

This has never failed me.