Electric Power Steering

With power steering being a must in a rally car and most of the OEM manufacturers going with electric power steering in new cars.

What is the state of the aftermarket in this space?

Is there a preferred design or manufacturer to steal junk yard parts from? Is there a tune able controller out there for them?

Over here in the UK many people use the electrically assisted steering column from the Vauxhall Corsa (I guess as it is a GM group vehicle, over there in da USA you may get some kind of GM equivalent vehicle).
In standard form in the original car it is linked in with road speed to vary the degree of assistance. This can be removed and a potentiometer added that allows manual adjustment to the required level of assistance.

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

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danster
Over here in the UK many people use the electrically assisted steering column from the Vauxhall Corsa (I guess as it is a GM group vehicle, over there in da USA you may get some kind of GM equivalent vehicle).
In standard form in the original car it is linked in with road speed to vary the degree of assistance. This can be removed and a potentiometer added that allows manual adjustment to the required level of assistance.

GM small stuff here for decades have been sourced from Asia, often Korea...
Cloesest thing we had in last 25+ years was "Pontiac Le Mans aka Kadett E in '88, like the Kadett GSI or Astra MkII. Came with the GM 1600 8v in 98% and there was a "Le Mans GTE" that had a Brazillian built 2.0 8v with multiport Bosch injection---the same bottom end as the marvvy 16v XE motor. I think one person here built one car, did 5-6 events---stock box as is the norm here.

See

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The Pontiac LeMans nameplate was revived in 1988 as a rebadged Daewoo LeMans 1986 to present (2013), a subcompact car sold in the North American and New Zealand markets until 1993 as a captive import. In North America, three-door hatchback and a four-door sedan body styles were offered.

The Pontiac/Daewoo Lemans was a rebadged variant of the Opel Kadett#Kadett E (1984–1991); Opel Kadett Combo (European markets); Vauxhall Astra Mark 2, Vauxhall Belmont, Bedford Astravan, Bedford Astramax (Britain); and the UzDaewooAuto Nexia (In Uzbekistan).

No Novas
We did get these:


Which look remarkably like the Corsa



But t'weren't

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Was the USA graced with any small shitty French cars? (though I'm guessing not as your gasoline still costs half what we pay for it on this side of the pond.....)

Some weak armed types have also utilised this electro / hydraulic steering pump pack from the Citroen Saxo and linked it into existing PAS racks.
Maybe there is an equivilent setup on something you do get over there.

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Disappointingly not yet a Jackass

Chevy Cobalt ,HHR, Saturn whatever platform has electric PS. Should be plenty of those available used.

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danster
Over here in the UK many people use the electrically assisted steering column from the Vauxhall Corsa (I guess as it is a GM group vehicle, over there in da USA you may get some kind of GM equivalent vehicle).

I believe it's the same column as used in the Cobalt, HHR, and Malibu, all of which look like most of them were borrowed from European designs. Hell, they even use those goofy thread-through flex hose retainers now, like a '70s BMW.

The Cobalt IS supposed to be a copy of some Opel (forget which), after they tried making a cheaped out version for the Saturn (Ion?) and it sucked so they re-Germanized it when they made the Cobalt.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Furthermore, it looks like Flaming River makes an EPAS column based on that system, but crammed into a chromed Saginaw-style column. Only $1100 or so with controller!

(That IS cheap after you find out how much a Cobalt column is new... and how hard it is to find a good used one since they get all clattery)

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

i would contact roger hicks at https://www.facebook.com/electricpowersteering

he makes electric PS colums and controlers, he will seel just the controler, colum sans motor unit (he will let you know what to get from a scrap yard, or a complete package. oh and he is a ford guy!

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lawrence knox aka fidel
knox motorspors
knoxmotorsports.us

Best and easiest to do is the Opel Corsa B steering column. And they're the most reliable as from what I'm told the pumps dont fail like the Fiats etc.

You can get them for 100 to 150 euros on any european ebay and you can get a controller that costs 35 euros and plugs straight into it and only has 2 wires pos and neg to connect. Plus has a knob for adjusting the effort.

First search on ebay uk

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vauxhall-Corsa-B-Electric-Power-Steering-Column-ECU-Rally-Autograss-/360684304125?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item53fa75b6fd

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corsa-B-C-Electric-Steering-Controller-Control-Rally-ESCORT-Kit-Car-/261240144018?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item3cd3204092

there's 3 different approaches that I know of:

1) Traditional PS rack w/ electric pump (Subaru XT, modern MINIs)

2) Electrically assisted rack (RX8)

3) Electrically assisted column (lotsa new stuff)



#3's pretty interesting to me, seeing as I've already got a reasonably nice manual rack.

There's another option available directly from the aftermarket: http://www.ultimatepowersteering.com.au/categories/electric-power-steering/epas-systems/epas-kits

Controller for a commonly available column in the US: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saturn-Vue-Ion-Chevrolet-Equinox-Electric-power-steering-controller-box-EPAS-/171027023129?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_100&hash=item27d2014519&vxp=mtr

somebody's "build thread" using a Yaris column: http://www.hachiroku.net/forums/showthread.php?t=22843

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KF7RWG
http://www.utahrallygroup.com

Actually most EPAS nowadays are electrically assisted racks. They have a motor driving a worm gear directly on the rack. Ford's very fond of it as are BMW and several others. Does an excellent job of destroying any road feel you might accidentally get through the steamroller tires they fit on cars nowadays.

GM's system is hard on their already-fragile steering shafts but at least they leave you a little bit of steering feel behind.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2013 12:33PM by Pete.

The nerd in me is loving this! Power assist column for under $100! Holy cow, when the power steering finally goes on the VW, I might need to try this.
ebizzle.com

Great replies everyone.

So does anyone know enough about GM to know if the Saturn Vue unit linked to by Robert is controllable with the part that Paul mentions in his post.

The power column seems to be a good retro fit options but the power rack would seem to be the ultimate solution if you could find a rack that had the correct dimensions.

The constroller is supposed to work with that column. Though you will need teh power steering controll unit. If you read all the way to the bottom of the controller listing, they mention that it's attached to the stock column and it is usually re-positioned to aid in mounting.
The column that I linked to did not have the controller, so that would need to be sourced as well. Looks like this could be done relatively cheaply if you have the right junk yards around.

I'm so bookmarking this thread. Thanks for all the great info guys. If I keep the Swift after this year, I'm probably going to put all this info to use