Anti-roll bar on early 90

Well as per the heading, I have a '87 ex WD 90 and I was wondering about the possibility of fitting an anti-roll bar to it. Has anybody any thoughts on this? Reason being the instability I have noticed at 50+ mph.
New shocks etc ain't made any difference.

Sorry for the underlined text above, God knows what I did there!

I have a similar age 90 and it is fine at 50, and 70.
Have you any bush issues? Wear, play? And not just visually good.

Swivels okay?

Steering damper okay?

Tyres okay?

You need brackets on the chassis as far as I know.
Unstable? How?

Feels unstable when at speed (well 60) and a Transit fly's close past at 90 makes it rock a bit, also at same speed if I am a bit over enthusiastic with direction change it feels a bit unstable.
All bushes check out OK also MOT passed 10 days ago ( and he had a good go at it). All shocks and steering damper changed due to age and not coz they are suspect.
Anti roll bars are fitted for a reason, I think I've found that reason hence the original question.

If all is genuinely in good order then roll bars may make a difference, but at the sacrifice of a me articulation - which is fine if you mainly use it on the road.

Do double check the bushes, as even a small amount of play can translate into quite a bit of instability at the wheels

It sounds pretty normal, although if it's wandering about you have a problem. It is a near 30 year old off road vehicle after all.

I'd properly check, jack the vehicle up on the chassis so the wheels are hanging off the floor out of gear and handbrake off, the A-frame, bushes and joint, trailing and radius arm bushes and steering swivels and that wheel bearings are solid but not tight. Also worth checking the engine/gearbox mounts.

One dodgy bush can feel like a huge issue.

Antiroll bars wont fix that, antiroll bars are fitted for a reason, its not to stabilise a broken vehicle.

Hows your steering damper? bushes, ball joints? swivel bearings and pre load? A frame bushes and ball joint? You need to check over your vehicle? Tyre pressure?

Had this with my disco....even though it had passed its MOT, for me I went round and did the boring job of changing everything to orange bushes (forgotten generic name) and this solved it...same with my 90...infact I didn't even bother MOTing the 90 until I had done the lot including, steering joints A frame etc...very stable to drive flat strap. Mine is an '86 and I thought that's old enough for new bushes all round...horrible job though with a hacksaw

Having said that I have heard that vehicles that tow a lot benefit from anti roll bars, which is a stability thing....is that true? She should be pretty stable as standard

Antiroll bars on a beam axle with stiff suspension will do nothing to aid stability except when cornering or going over very very bumpy ground, and when I say bumpy I mean 50mph will put you through your sun roof bumpy.

Just to add , my 90 is 31 years old, all the bushings, ball joints, bearings and pre loads are spot on, It doesn't have anti roll bars, Ive driven defenders less than half its age and in comparison I was always surprised at how good my 90 actually is on the road, Last TD5 I drove was all over the place, it scared me half to death.

elan23 said:

Feels unstable when at speed (well 60) and a Transit fly's close past at 90 makes it rock a bit, also at same speed if I am a bit over enthusiastic with direction change it feels a bit unstable.
All bushes check out OK also MOT passed 10 days ago ( and he had a good go at it). All shocks and steering damper changed due to age and not coz they are suspect.
Anti roll bars are fitted for a reason, I think I've found that reason hence the original question.

Click to expand...

new or stiffer springs and roll bars may help if its body roll and not steering related