Re:An example of how all front axle components prevent wobble or not?

I subscribe to a theory that ALL the front axle components contribute to keeping steering wobble under control. 
My Jimny doesn't (well it didn't) have wobble, smooth upto flat out, but if you hit a pot hole you are aware of a little oscillation that soon stops. It's also completely standard, no lifts or large tyres.

I have a need to make the Jimny ride less "hard", so I've backed off my adjustable suspension dampers front and back to the softest setting.
As a result I can now feel a little oscillation in the steering at about 48, it depends upon the road surface more than being permanent, but it's present now the dampers are softened.

​​​So for me this just highlights how all the components are contributing in preventing this phenomenon. Just thought it was an interesting result for a minor change on the vehicle. 

The Jimny must have a natural wobble at 48 (simple harmonic motion), normally if everything is good you can’t feel it but if something wears,or you soften the suspension you can feel the natural frequency.

If it’s a problem to you fit a steering damper that will remove the slight wobble and give it better stability on the main roads.

Robin

Do later cars have a factory damper, or are they just generally less wobbly because they have lower mileage?

rogerzilla wrote: Do later cars have a factory damper, or are they just generally less wobbly because they have lower mileage?

Later cars are identical to the gen3 with the addition of a damper. The higher mileage ones and off-road ones are starting to wear through bearings and starting to wobble. In my experience the damper is great for reducing tramlining and general wander on the road, it does very little for higher frequency wobble.

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I agree 100%, don't fit a damper to try to cover up the start of a death wobble, but I found mine made the car massively more stable on the open road. From the time I took the car home, I thought the steering was far too light at anything over 50MPH in medium winds I found it needed constant correction even on a stright road, that got very tiring on a long journey.

The steering damper made a huge difference to me and meant I was much less tired on a long journey.

An update just for those interested and to add suspension dampers to the "wobble" list of things to check.

So I had backed my adjustable dampers to the minimum setting and my normally rock steady steering had started to "wobble" at the magic 48mph.
I did a full tyre rotation just in case it was the tyres, and although it improved slightly it was still present. So this, and the fact the vehicle driving characteristic are no longer to my liking, prompted me to increase the damper settings.

Well 1 click in from minimum and the wobble is almost completely gone. I reckon 1 more click on the front (2 clicks total) and it will be as smooth as silk again, but it's that slight I will not bother, as my goal was to soften off the suspension. Just for comparison I was running 4 clicks from minimum (1 to 7 is range), which I picked to mimic the OEM dampers.

So the suspension dampers do contribute to wobble control, well they do on mine. I find this sort of stuff interesting, hope others do also