I would think that this car is going to be so lightly loaded on the front that it won't need power steering, even at autocross speeds. Some early Miatas were manual steering and they were quite drivable.
I would think that this car is going to be so lightly loaded on the front that it won't need power steering, even at autocross speeds. Some early Miatas were manual steering and they were quite drivable.
My depowered miata is a little rough at autocross speeds, with all the negative camber and smaller steering wheel. Its not easy to steer fast (for me). If i could, id add power back in.
Can't say about anyone else experience though.
I belive the MR2 PS pumps are the go to. All in one unit, that only needs 12V.
I'll keep my eye out for a challenge priced electric pump or column. For now I'm going to just send it with manual steering to move past steering.
And in that vein I finished the steering end links last night. I'm up to 10 bolted connections for the upright. It's basically all made out of bolts at this point. It's maybe not elegant or simple.. but at least it's done.
Total cost for the steering arms is $1.83. total they consumed 6 hrs of build time. Complicated math is complicated.
What's the deal with the green hardware?
Probably bought in bulk. Rural King (farm supply store) around here sells hardware in bulk by weight. Red is SAE threads and sizes and Green is metric, I think.
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
Grade 5 bulk SAE Fine thread from Rural King. Ours Red is metric, clear is grade 2, gold is Grade 8
Neat! Im jealous you have bulk metric....
We're supposed to get a Rural King near me soon and I am very excited!
TSC has bulk SAE nuts and bolts which is great. Can't wait to have bulk metric too.
java230 said:I belive the MR2 PS pumps are the go to. All in one unit, that only needs 12V.
Edit: forgot to say I'm not familiar with the mr2 unit, but wanted to share the below in case the mr2 unit is hard to find.
The Volvo/Ford units are readily available in every junkyard, and also come with integrated reservoir, and are straightforward to wire.
https://www.corral.net/threads/volvo-electric-power-steering-conversion-full-write-up.2499503/
Not to be a negative nellie, but will an electric column (a la Prius) even fit?
In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :
Probably. Length wise it should be possible to stuff it right where the column bracket is....about 7" is what's needed for the ones I looked at once you strip/cut them down. That would leave it on full display and possibly obstructive view but it should fit.
But just connecting lines to the hydraulic unit sure seems the easiest....the engine already has a pump so a couple cheap hard lines to the front are all that's needed to get it working and it would be lighter and neater than EPS but eat a little hp.....not that any of us are helping by making nocomes list longer :)
I was going to say ATV, but I didnt realize the price on them.
https://www.amazon.com/SuperATV-Universal-Adaptable-EZ-STEER-Steering/dp/B00D98IBFG
Geez, I have a new in box one of these, and I also have a Vue inline rack and such. If you need something of the sort, shoot me a line, I may can make a deal on the vue or get dims if interested. I have the potentiometer setup for it too....
Here's a link I stumbled onto AFTER I'd pretty much finished doing my EPS conversion, lots of helpful info and pictures.
The ATV setups can be had on alibaba for $150-$300 depending how powerful it is...they go like 150-400W. The car stuff is for sure at the high end to maybe higher based on wire sizes. I had ordered a 380W unit "sample" for $250, but then they came back with $120 shipping so I canceled and switched to used fiesta which I now know is a harder unit to convert, lots of wires to relocated the controller.
Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) said:My depowered miata is a little rough at autocross speeds, with all the negative camber and smaller steering wheel. Its not easy to steer fast (for me). If i could, id add power back in.
Can't say about anyone else experience though.
I finally got my hands on a manual Miata rack and it is delightful compared to the depowered rack. I could go one step further by replacing the Momo prototype with the factory sized steering wheel, but that ain't happening.
Plan B was to find another PS rack and use the Volvo electric power steering pump.
Back at it after a 4 day camping vacation. Work is progressing on the front shocks/bellcranks. First step (After deciding where to put them) was to locate the chassis side mount. For placement I explored several options before arriving at right at the front bulkhead. I'm not the biggest fan of the fact that the bellcranks will basically be a flat lever with the pviot in the middle, but the other option was to put the shocks along the sides of the footwell which would put them out in the air coming through the front wing elements. This is also the easiest design to build as the pullrod, belcrank, shock mount are all in a flat plane accross the front of the car.
I also removed preload from the 4 shocks. This was much easier to do in a Lathe then previously when I did it with an angle grinder.
More front suspension progress. I've mocked up the belcranks (well made templates for the steel and bolted them in). I will put together a post explaining the math and method for how I arrived at the mockup. I'm targeting a mostly rising rate by having the shock axis at a slightly <90* angle to the bellcrank, while the pullrod is right at 90*. This way as the suspension works the effective bellcrank length on the Pullrod side gets shorter more quickly then the shock side does. This will result in a rising rate as the effective ratio of the bellcrank drops.
At ride height the shock axis should be roughly 90* to the bellcrank arm.
Picture shown is at full droop.
For visual purposes, will the bell-crank rotate on yet to be built base located where that middle hole is located?
In reply to 2GRX7 :
Yes the pivot is in the center hole. I will be making a plate that attaches to the bulkhead that will have a threaded bung. Then there will be a 2nd plate down to the suspension pivot.
Surprised to see pullrods!
Now I might need to steal your design for front suspension.
Not at all what I expected, but super cool!
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
The lower ball joints can't take spring loads. I suppose they probably could but they were not designed with that loading in mind so my shock loads have to go into the upper arms which the joints are used for shock loads on the Side By Sides the UBJ comes from. Because I'm keeping the front low this results in pullrods being the only option. Unless I did something silly with extra links and 2 belcranks (which I considered)
In reply to maschinenbau :
I kept trying to force a more awesome looking layout of the shocks in. Every other layout I came up with was more complicated or introduced some negative consequence just for vanity to put the shocks somewhere cooler looking. This is the simplest solution but also the least apparent that something silly is going on. Especially after the body and trim panels are installed. You will open the hood and the shocks will just be buried under the steering rack.
The actual bellcrank will be a little more trick then just what it is now. The Pullrod side is slotted and the shock side has 3 holes to be adjusted. This lets me adjust the suspension frequency from 2.0-5.0Hz. which is a pretty silly range of adjustment.
In reply to nocones :
Makes sense. I was expecting the bellcrank axis above the UCA axis to keep them push rods, but that would probably not clear the hood and fenders. Nice solution.
I made one belcrank worth of sideplates and got the Pullrod adjuster figured out.
To adjust the Pullrod you rotate the aluminum cam block. Once you tighten the Pullrod bolt the cam is just along for the ride. The belcrank plate is sloted to allow the bolt to slide.
The pin is just a short section of 1/4 solid from a unthreaded part of a rusty bolt. The cam block is from the stock R1 shock mount yoke. I have several of these because the come on most of the shocks you would get off the internet.
It's a simple solution but simple sometimes is best.
You'll need to log in to post.
