electric power steering

[enjenjo]

I see in the magazines flaming River has come out with an electric power steering for strret rods. I checked on their website, and the prices start at $3600, which only includes the power steering attachment, no column, no box, no bracket. Is it just me, or is that a bit steep?

[phat46]

I see in the magazines flaming River has come out with an electric power steering for strret rods. I checked on their website, and the prices start at $3600, which only includes the power steering attachment, no column, no box, no bracket. Is it just me, or is that a bit steep?

Seems a "bit" steep to me. They should be showing up in the junk yards by now; some  intrepid rodder (like Frank) will adapt it to a streetrod I'm sure. My new Saturn has the electric steering and i'm not really sure that i like it, kind of a vague feel at low speeds and a sharp increase in effort at higher speeds, maybe it just takes some getting used to.

[enjenjo]

The problem right now with factory electric power steering, it's tied into the ECM, and won't work stand alone. I figure someone will figure it out in the near future.

[Charlie Chops 1940]

I must be missing something big time - where's the advantage in electric steering for a hot rod???

Charlie

[54stude]

A friend of mine had a little fiat in Germany (1999 Punto?) that had electric power steering rack that was not ecm controlled.  Just a button on the dash that was for "park mode" or high assist steering.  

On the highway it just assisted a little based on the steering wheel inputs.

You could barely keep the car on the highway if you tried to drive it in "park mode" at high speeds.

No power steering pump is the big advantage of this system.

My wife has a 2001 audi a6 with the Bosch Servotronic steering, and I thing it feels really nice both at lower speeds and higher speeds.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

interesting stuff.

our VW Jetta has the elec steering IIRC....... car steers quite nice IMHO.

Did I mention the Jetta gets over 40mpg in town driving?

[PeterR]

I see in the magazines flaming River has come out with an electric power steering for strret rods. I checked on their website, and the prices start at $3600, which only includes the power steering attachment, no column, no box, no bracket. Is it just me, or is that a bit steep?

That $3600 is only the start, you wait till you find the cost of the lead from a wall outlet to the car for an interstate trip.

[papastoyss]

Wonder how much of that 3600 $ goes for liability insurance?

[Carps]

I must be missing something big time - where's the advantage in electric steering for a hot rod???

Charlie

No hydraulic pump attached to the engine, compact steering rack, no hydraulic fluid to leak and mess up the garage floor.

In most systems the electric motor unit is under the dash and part of the column so I'm not sure how Flaming River's EPS works with no column.

Some EPS systems are better than others, inso far as they are designed for more sporty applications.  The Lexus IS 250 and BMW systems delivere better feel and steering response than an old fashioned hydraulic systems but these are also the units that use inputs from other systems since these cars have some additional dynamic features that operate the steering independent of the driver.  They can still be adapted to work without these additional functions.

The smaller units from Honda Civic, Toyota Yaris and MR2 should work very well in hot rod applications as they are both compact and don't have links to extra technology.  You should also be able to adapt the EPS column to operate a larger non assisted rack that might be better suited to a larger hot rod, than the rack from the sub compact donour car.

I don't have any schematics here, but if I can find some time, I'll see what I can track don and post.

The $3,600, does seem a tad steep.