Electric power steering conversion

[Wageslave]

I came across some good reading on splicing the electric steering assist motor off of a Saturn vue onto the steering shaft of a vehicle to get rid of the power steering pump and its parasitic losses.

It looked as simple as getting the motor and a conversion harness off of eBay. I will be sticking with my current system but a few extra horsepower and knob adjustable steering feel could be worth it to some.

 

[Opie Knievel]

Good reading? Got a link?

It seems like that would require some effort and fabrication. The electric assisted steering motors that I've seen bolt directly to the steering column.

 

[oldsmobile joe]

i was speaking with someone the other day about this subject. i had never heard of it. i found some info on the web, but no good right ups. i would love to know more. please post your info.
my two concerns would be is it strong enough for the weight of a gbody, and were these gears recalled by gm?

 

[Opie Knievel]

The setups I've seen have mainly been on GM vehicles. Particularly the G6 & HHR. The steering column itself is very short. The electric motor mounts to the bottom of the steering column. The splined shaft coming out of the column engages the motor and on the output side of the motor the steering intermediate shaft connects. The intermediate shaft then passes through the firewall and connects to the rack and pinion. The rack and pinion looks like a manual rack would. There are no power steering hoses/lines because the electric motor takes the place of the hydraulic system.

I'm not sure if you could replace the power steering box on a G Body with a manual box and use an electric setup but it sounds good in theory.

I have no idea how much the ECM on the car has to do with the steering motor but I do know that there are several wires going to the motor. Many more wires than it would take to just power the motor. Maybe some of the guys who work on cars would know.

Also, I don't know how much you'd actually gain from doing all the work to put this system in a G Body.

 

[Wageslave]

http://forums.vintage-mustang.com/m...e-you-go.html#/topics/670865?page=1&_k=7w04qc

 

[pontiacgp]

why not just change the water pump to electric, that draws about twice the power of the ps pump and you don't have to change the steering column

 

[Wageslave]

why not just change the water pump to electric, that draws about twice the power of the ps pump and you don't have to change the steering column

I totally agree, I just thought it was interesting as a technical innovation.

 

[pontiacgp]

I totally agree, I just thought it was interesting as a technical innovation.

it may be but have you seen all the recalls on electric steering, they seem to fail quite often

 

[UNGN]

why not just change the water pump to electric, that draws about twice the power of the ps pump and you don't have to change the steering column

Because an electric water pump doesn't help the car parallel park itself or go down the highway hands free.. or get hacked by the neighbor kid.

 

[Wageslave]

Supposedly, if you use the harness off of ebay, it will put the motor into a default mode since there is no signal from the CAN bus. Then the knob adjusts how much boost is present. That way it ignores the sensor that sometimes goes bad in those motors.

Still probably not worth the effort to do...but neat.