I have a '73, 454, with power steering. I've been doing a lot of research, and I'm considering removing the power steering pump, belt, pulley, all hydraulic lines and converting over to an electric power steering system. I'm doing a body off frame upgrade to the suspension, brakes and steering system anyway and thought this would be a great upgrade. Has anyone made this conversion?

 

This might give you some ideas here.

 

I'm in the "messing" with stage- just got the electric motor and ECU the other day.


It can be done- but I'm not going to say easily....

This guy- fellow forum member "waid1017" did a great thread about a month ago. I had looked at the Saturn one and the controller - but I think this is a better idea. He did a Ford Falcon and has a lot more room under the dash...From what I read- he was formerly a quality engineer for Hydraulic power steering systems and has been messing w/ steering for a while!!!

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...nd-videos.html

I'm using a Nissan Cube (2010) motor and ECU- seem to be plentiful on eBay & junkyards plus the least expensive and also has a newer genneration tourqe sensor .

If you have a z-bar- all bets are off. My car is "slightly modified" and running a hydraulic clutch with a TKO 5 speed. Plus my exhaust is a little different as I have 4 more cylinders than stock and don't have power brakes nor a vacuum tank.

The steering column will have to be shortened-and I have removed the reverse lock on the ignition.

If you are doing a rack and pinion mod- I'm thinking it might be a little easier....

The shaft on the electric motor can easily be removed- shortened and modded to an 18mm double D shaft.

The parts to do it- are easy to find.





electric motor to stock steering box-

http://www.jegs.com/i/Borgeson/153/113425/10002/-1



Stock Steering column to electric box- Rag joint

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Genuine-Borgeson-Steering-Coupler-OEM-Rag-Joint-Style-18Mm-Dd-X-1-48-/322330135674?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368


Here's the ECU- less than 4" x 3½" x 2" - Power -Ground- Ignition- so three wire hook-up and can be remotely mounted (inside passenger cabin) unlike the Saturn piece.After 10 seconds w/ no can-bus signal- the ECU goes into fail safe mode thus doesn't require any other inputs.

The "cube" weighs in around 2700-2800lbs- but front wheel drive so it should be a close match to our cars.




motor and box




Mock-up with electrical tape and 3/4" copper pipe.

I will have to move/change a fitting on my drysump tank- and then figure a mount- but looks like it's gonna work.

 

Factory Five Racing offered it as a upgrade in all their cars from the 33 hotrod to their GTM supercar, which is an awesome mid engine Corvette design. I'm probably going to do the upgrade, and looking for anyone who has completed the upgrade and is driving a C3 down the road with it installed. I'll check out the Thread attached. Thanks!

 

Yep - that's the Unisteer piece-

about $1000 from Summit- and you are still going have to shorten the column- and get the adapters- I think it's 9/16 -30 spline on both sides
And it looks bigger than the Koyo (Toyota/Nissan piece)

The other thing is the motor is offset opposite than the Nissan- so depending how you mount it- will more than likely have less clearance to the frame.

https://www.summitracing.com/ga/part...2360/overview/





Oh- here is an interesting read on how to modify the the steering and make it adjustable-

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_111532/article.html

Richard

 

Saw this one. They have a video there installing it into a 63. Not sure if it would work on a C3. Not cheap lol!
http://americanpowertrain.com/i-8580...-corvette.html

 

I'm not too excited about the column mounted electric assists. The OEMs have almost totally gone away from them in favor of rack mounted systems. The rack mounted systems incorporate everything(assist motor, position sensor and control module) into the rack itself. Very compact and much more reliable. I realize that finding a appropriately sized rack and building a mounting system may be a challenge but in my opinion would be the way to go.

 

This sounds interesting as well. Do you know who manufactures a quality conversion kit?

 

Im holding out for a purpose built retro kit. I believe there is already 1 on the market for the C2 corvettes but not the C3 yet. I looked but couldnt find the thread for that
but recall it wasn't cheap - over $1k.

I was looking at the new Chevy pickups at the dealer last week and noticed the entry level Silverado has electric steering now. Shouldn't be to long before reasonable priced retro kits are available. Ya, retro electric steering, backup cameras, auto start are to nice to drive w/o.

 

Cardo, I believe the system you are referring to is the one I linked a couple posts back. A bit more than $1000! ������

 

Yep times 3!!! $2700+ for JUST an electric column(C1 and C2) and you'll still use your old GM box.

Unfortunately the C3 has no room inside the cabin- and not a lot between the steering box and firewall.

The electric Rack and Pinions have been around for a while- I think the first was the NSX in the mid 90's- and I know the Honda S2000 have them as well.

And of course they're are a lot of cars now - C6& 7 - Camaro-Ford Mustang- but newer they are going to be using CAN-BUS which complicates everything...

Here's one off a Camaro for less then $300

 

It would be nice to see a thread on your install when you have completed the installation. I'm going to install the electric steering on my '73, even though it is already equipped with factory power steering. I want to get rid of the pump, lines and extra hardware.

 

At this time no, but I'd be surprised if someone wasn't already working on one.

As Richard said, the biggest problem besides the mounting system is the lack of a CAN bus network. Luckily, most of the info on the network from the steering module is outgoing(steering position to the ABS module and PCM for stability control). Pretty much anything that goes into the system is for non-essential things like speed referenced variable assist(nice to have but not needed) and all systems have a default mode when network communication is lost. I've replaced power steering modules in the past and just for fun drove the car w/o programming the module and besides all the warning messages the difference isn't really all that noticeable.

 

I will do- I don't have any more room on mine for a power steering pump- for my AC I'm running an electric compressor.


Hey Doug-

Somebody is working on one- EPAS-it's a Rack and Pinion but looks like its just a glorified Saturn type with the motor on the column- as it's mounted right on the input.


Hmmmm- failsafe/default mode on the R&P too?

That's how mine will operate- after about 10 seconds -doesn't see any info and it goes into failsafe mode..

My wife's 2016 Mustang has the electric power rack and it has a really nice feel to it. I could mess with her car - disconnect the module and see what it's like...

And the Mustang pull-off parts are easy to find -as a lot of them get wrecked!!!



Can't find much info on it- about $2300 and supposedly available in December- don't know if it would fit though...

http://www.jegs.com/i/EPAS+Performan...NdVxoCwILw_wcB

 

http://www.jegs.com/i/EPAS+Performan...NdVxoCwILw_wcB
[/QUOTE]

Looking at the photo attached, could it be as simple as replacing the helm joints at the ends????

We couldn't be that lucky.

Good luck messing with your wife's Mustang.

 

Looking at the photo attached, could it be as simple as replacing the helm joints at the ends????

We couldn't be that lucky.

Good luck messing with your wife's Mustang.[/QUOTE]

Remember to keep an eye on the width between the inner pivots on the rack to determine what sort of bumpsteer issues might have to be contended with.

 

Thanks.
This is one of those areas where I will sit back and wait for someone who is more knowledgeable than I am to work out the details and then I'll follow their example and install the same system on my C3.

 

I share that method. My to do list is to long and the technical problems could be unseen. I already converted to manual steer and that will work as long as I can still turn that big azz steering wheel.

 

Can this upgrade change the steering ratio to make it quicker ?

 

This is pretty awesome. I'd love to see if anyone has added electric power steering to something like a Steeroids Rack and Pinion setup...


I really wish Holley would see the opportunity of moving from just EFI systems into full auto computers for classic cars. -This would include jumping from their proprietary protocols to full support for CAN-BUS, of course, but the opportunity is HUGE.


A full and extensible computer that of course does things like control your EFI system and ignition timing, and electric fans - to the ability to control the speed of your fuel pump, the ability to control programmable lighting, extending the CAN-BUS over bluetooth so you can have wireless paddle shifters, touch screen stereos that support Android Auto and Apple CarPlay so that you can load apps to display any engine status and gauges and make changes to anything through the touch screen. Ability to support all the various programmable gauges. Control for over electric steering sensitivity.


Ability to add an "Eco Mode", "Performance Mode", and "Track Mode" button to your car that automatically adjusts your air to fuel ratio and shift points -ability to read input from a drive shaft sensor, log the data and then upload it to a cloud service that pulls back down a config file to adjust your ignition timing for a self-learning and simple "launch mode/ traction control" option for your car.

Of course cellphone-based remote start and auto-unlock when your pared Bluetooth phone is in range. But the ability to add other "guest" phones and have personalized settings for each driver - when my wife or my kids drive the rev limiter goes on, the shift points go up and if equiped with an LS motor that has "Displacement on demand" the kid only gets 6 cylinders; the Valet gets 4. My alternative rock station goes on when my phone has unlocked the car; my wife gets NPR; the kid gets the whole entertainment system locked out so he can keep his eyes on the road and not crash the stupid @#$ thing. -The car calls me with speaker phone enabled if it goes over 75 mph while my kid's phone is "logged in". -Phone app gets a video request with a feed from the front-facing camera. If the front or rear camera detect a blue and red flashing pattern of enough intensity- I get a phoen call on speaker phone and a phone app video feed from the front and rear-facing camera.


The options are limitless for an Open aftermarket computer EFI that has an app model and is highly extensible with good documentation and APIs for developers to create anything they can imagine... Sigh... Someone in the auto industry will eventually catch up with the tech industry...

-Heck drill some sensors into your bumpers and have an aftermarket self-parking / self-driving option if you've already got electric and computer-controllable steering and throttle... Sensors do double-duty as lane correction alerts.

Active grill shutters- to help the car warm up faster and have less aero drag at high speed- again the options are limited by your imagination when you've got a central computer with an open and extensible architecture.

Computer control over Dual Mode exhaust or electric exhaust cut-outs. (Program them to open at X RPM or be automatically open in "Performance / Track" modes.)

Self-tuning mode that enables the car to receive HP, Torque, and barometric pressure information as an input from a wheel dyno and automatically use that information plus the information it has on AFR, fuel pressure, & ignition timing and then submit this data to a cloud-based web service that makes changes on the fly to rapidly and cheaply dyno tune the car. (Can be loaded with information about the car- faster tuning- or us a special purpose Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence service with no information to automatically and quickly tune the car.) -It could learn the fastest shift points for 1/8th or 1/4 mile perf and automatically put these shift points in and save them to the "Track: 1/4 mile" profile... It could recommend a TC stall speed for max 1/4 mile times for your car..

IMO, it's just the biggest no-brainer ever and it's just a matter of time; it's just frustrating that it's possible, yet doesn't exist now.


We could make "Kit" from Knight Rider look like this things half-wit brother with cheap and already available technology in no time flat with Holley's resources. -Although I expect at their current pace Google will do it first... (They could feed you location-based ads, gather information on which gas stations and stores you drive to, offer you VERY specialized insurance for your driving habits and locations and in general use the wealth of informaiton available from a fully wired car to drop the price down to obscenely low prices such that you'd beg for them to take your personal information and annoy the **** out of you with advertisements.)

-"I noticed your power steering pump is 90% on it's way to failing; I've ordered you a new one from Amazon; it will be here by Wednesday!"
-Check engine alerts come on- you pull over- "Your engine's accessory belt has failed, your engine will overheat within 3 1/2 miles- you cannot make it to the next gas station which is 8 miles away: I've ordered a replacement belt from Amazon Now- it will be delivered via Drone to your current location within roughly 7 minutes: Here is an install video that you can watch that will take only 6 minutes to complete. I can also call AAA, if you like, but it will currently take them 40 minutes to get to your location and I estimate you may be completed installing a new belt only 35 minutes from now."


I want "Kit's" big brother in my car now! (Not my 2014 car, not a new 2017 car- in my 79 C3!)


Adam