Anyone converted a car *to* an electric steering rack?

Just as the topic says, has anyone replaced their hydraulic system with an electric rack? Advantages as I see them are reduced weight, engine bay complexity, and one less type of fluid leak to rein in when things get old. The idea just occurred to me because RX-7 rack started leaking, so I removed it, shipped it out to get professionally rebuilt, reinstalled it, and drive approx 3k miles over 3 years and it's now leaking again from the same spot. The RX-8 and ND are just over 1" wider up front so maybe they would make good donors? The subframe mounting looks all different though.

The other side is heavier alternator and battery load. How healthy is your charging system on the Rx-7?

True, my alternator is original. There are 140amp units available as bolt-on upgrades (90 is stock) for not too much.

Many people have, it's a common mod for rally cars and a few people on here have done it. There are three different types of systems you can switch to:

1. Electro-hydraulic - similar to traditional PS but with an electric pump. GPS/Huckleberry has a system like this on his E30 with a variable boost level controlled by an Arduino. Advantages: Best feel, easy mod. Disadvantages: Heaviest solution, leaves you with a highly complex system that still has fluids.

2. Electric motor on shaft - just what it sounds like, requires mods to the steering column. Advantages: Fairly easy mod, leaves you with a simple system. Disadvantages: Feel is not the best, may be awful depending on what motor unit you choose.

3. Linear electric rack - the electric assist is in the rack itself so you have to change the rack to do this. Advantages: Good feel, leaves you with a lightweight, simple and tidy setup. Disadvantages: Expensive and difficult mod, often requires serious electronics hacking to trick the rack into working.

I've never heard of anyone converting from electric to hydraulic PS BTW.

So it looks like you want option 3, and it will require serious electronics hacking:

http://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/eps-electronic-power-steering-conversion-fd-991025/

You might want to consider depowering the rack and using option 2.

Yea option 3 is what I was thinking of. I had previously installed a de-powered rack and I didn't like it with upsized sticky track tires. It was okay for road course but not okay for autox. I did a bit of googling last night and ran across that thread as well as another that had a link to this so it looks like there may be options available for the electronic component of it. Clearly it'd be more work if you wanted functional speed-sensitive variable power.

I have a complete RX8 suspension and such here. After reading the RX8 rack setup thanks for that I am now rethinking it possibly.

GameboyRMH wrote: 3. Linear electric rack - the electric assist is in the rack itself so you have to change the rack to do this. Advantages: Good feel, leaves you with a lightweight, simple and tidy setup. Disadvantages: Expensive and difficult mod, often requires serious electronics hacking to trick the rack into working. I've never heard of anyone converting from electric to hydraulic PS BTW.

You have now heard of someone doing it. We're converting our V8 ND Miata to hydraulic PS for several reasons.

One of them is packaging. The big motor on the rack takes up a lot of real estate in a very tightly packaged area. Something to consider if you're retrofitting.

I started scrounging parts for electric power steering on my falcon a while back, but didn't make it far. Several folks have done it with parts out of a Saturn Vue. See here...

http://www.tffn.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=32444&start=105