In this paper the stability of the steady motions of dynamical systems with ignorable coordinates is considered. In addition to the original “free” systems “restrained” systems are defined in such a way that the ignorable velocities remain constant for all motions. The relation between the stability behavior of these two types of systems is examined in detail and several stability and instability theorems are given for damped and undamped systems. An illustrative example deals with the steady motions of a heavy gyrostat.