Electric steering conversion

GameboyRMH said:

Craigorypeck said:

The depowered powered rack is quicker than my manual rack by at least one turn lock to lock. This makes it tougher to turn and pushing the hydralic guts takes more effort. If I turn off the electrical assistance its near impossible to steer stationary. If it was easier to steer it may react faster... Or it still may have the same issue.. If I lift the front wheels off the ground it and flick the wheel it doesn't go very far, if that makes sense!

Did you open it up and remove the hydraulic seals, loop the lines on the hydraulic fittings, etc? If not there could not only be extra friction in the rack, but chambers acting as pneumatic dampers on your steering now. A properly depowered rack should feel the same as a manual rack of the same ratio.

Being able to flick the wheel to quickly get a ton of countersteer also requires a plenty of caster, the wheel won't do the same thing if the car is in the air.

Nope the rack is just running dry. 

I rebuilt it to run with hydraulic pump but one of the rams had rusted so I attempted to full the pits with superglue but I just ended up going electric, as i found a donor car in the junk yard and the parts cost me less than 20 dollars! 

The inlet and outlet are just piped together.

I should take it apart again. Get rid of those seals inside. Free it up a bit. 

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Agreed. That seems a lot easier than the Vue system. 

So, i followed the guy with the failsafe mode column from a nissan versa.

Wether i will actually use it or not remains to be seen. 37.99 is a lpt of challenge budget. And until testing, wont know if needed.

If you are getting these out of a junkyard is there a control box that would be smart to grab ?

Or is the control box also connected to a bunch of other things and not really hackable.....

On the one I just bought the control box is mounted to the column

Yeah you need the control box and cut the connector off and take it. 

And don't forget the splined sleeve. 

Are there any notable updates to this thread?

I know more and more cars have electric power steering, but are any helpful for us'ns?

--Keith

Don't know about what else is out there, but we used a Prius unit on our CAM-T Falcon Wagon and detailed it on page 5 of the build thread.  It has worked well.

Tons of updates in this space! A company called Hang Tight is producing a plug and play controller that controls Volvo/Dodge/Mazda electric hydraulic and Toyota Prius columns. Adds a ton of options for your build.

https://hangtight.io/pages/psc

In reply to terencesawtell :

Good find. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzHbm52Tawo

Seems the S2K and Rx8 both have a fancy motor-in-rack (or around rack?) setup that gets the weight of the assist motor as low in the car as you possibly can. 

I'm currently interested in 2024 because I find the steering in my 996 to be both slow, and very light (not super communicative) I'm thinking maybe an S2K or Rx8 rack may be an upgrade: Eliminate heavy power steering pump and lines, move weight forward and lower in chassis...

There's also the ND Miata rack now, which is OK. I haven't driven an ND3 yet, but it's supposed to have improvements that reduce friction and make the feel even better.

We used Volvo pump on our Champ Car Elantra. 12v 80amp fused power/ground and then 12v signal wire hooked to a switch on our dash to the grey wire on the stock Volvo connector. One new pressure side line using the OE Elantra line with a -6an fitting on the pump end. Then a -6an pump fitting to the volvo pump. We kept the stock return line and just put it on the inlet to the Volvo reservoir. 

Ran the 24 hour race in August 2023 and it worked great. Pump never overheated, lines stayed tight and the feedback in "emergency mode" is equal to approx. 50% of full power. Feedback is excellent.

Check our thread for the install. Total cost was under $300 including low mile pump, OE volvo connector, new OE Elantra lines, wire/connectors and 80amp mega fuse.