This bit reminds me of the classic Who song ... 'we won't get fooled again'
I had a similar, but different, issue a while back.
I got a Pedders steering damper couple of year prior. Not my first choice but with the timing no other option.
Anyhow, fitted it and ran for two years.
I also changed panhard bushes and bolts(always do the bolts too), plus other sundry bits that needed doing, tie rod ends, drag link(a bit dodgy) .. etc.
Pulled the stg damper, felt perfectly fine in the centre as you said too. had a mil or two of slack at both extremities, but the steering doesn't actually travel that far.
Did wheel bearings. no change.
My issue was tho that under no power but hitting a bump where both fronts at the same time would cause not just a steering wobble, but a death wobble, starting at about 70k/h
Hit bump on one wheel, nothing.
But if I hit the same 'join in the road' with both fronts under power, I'd get no wobble!(made no sense to me)
Anyhow, changed the steering damper bushes, old ones were fine, but thought what the hell.. had to try something.
Made a very small difference .. so I thought at least I'm almost on the right track.
So got a std steering damper(they're Armstrong branded), to replace the what seemed fine Pedders damper, came with new bushes, but use the poly bushes I got previously replaced .. and no matter how hard I try to cause the previous death wobble, she just won't do it now.
Still have the old Pedders stg damper in a box .. thinking to try to re-fit it to see if it's just a badly made item, or something else had changed.
On my old RRC, I reckon I must have replaced quite a few worn std steering dampers(>600k Klms tho), I did once get a Koni damper as it was there and cheap enough.
I didn't feel it made any difference, and I can't remember it being either better or worse in terms of longevity, so all subsequent stg dampers were just the cheap as chips standard types.
Hope this info is of some help.
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