The Mighty Boy

Your a cheeky bugga with that Lucas comment. 
the Prince of Darkness hasnt let me down yet.
Notice I said yet.

Cobba
things l@@k gr8 m8

Here B a poster to nail up in the shed or the dunny wall

 

cya

Too late thanks. Other kind friends have already done this.

Cobba,

I've had my share of British vehicles and still own a Range Rover Classic. The only Rover parts left are the chassis, steering column and wiring, Just shows I'm not that smart.

How it works.

The energising of the motor is by a torque sensor in the top of the unit. This senses which way the wheel is being turned and assists the turn. The assist varies from lots to nil dependent on the frequency being sent to it by another sensor. An electronic speedo or ABS sensor could send the signal but the frequency of the signal dictates how much assist you get. If you had a sensor giving (say) 200 signals per KLM you would have full time assist but an ABS sensor is probably giving around 15,000 which would cut he assist at about 10kph.

The sweet number is 3,000 per klm on the system I have. I can build a frequency altering module to adjust the cut in point of assist. You can buy a rotary pot with brains that allows you to do it manually but being automatic would be fun.

After tossing and turning last night trying to sort out the best line of approach to making this all go together I think I have in my head. I now need to make that happen. I'll post photos of the unit when its sorted.

I imagine EPAS would be great on non-assisted truck steering.

After much trying of different combinations I finally have a steering column that fits the Nissan switches, shrouds and steering wheel.  Then mounts to the Nissan body mounts and fit the Suzuki steering rack.

As there is no welding permitted on any steering components all joints had to be by mechanical fasteners, splines, DD joints and mix and matching U joints. That isn't strictly correct but any welding needs to be welded by a certified welder and X-rayed for any faults   I managed to go all the way from steering wheel to rack without any heat applied to any moving part.

I also have the wiring sorted out to power the column.  I've ordered an aftermarket pulse generator to make the column work without needing to get and RPM signal and wheel speed signal from the car.  Just seemed a lot less work.

Still need to make something to keep the water and cold draught from bowing up the column then up the leg of your duds!

Hopefully I'll get some time with it tomorrow to work out a seal on the firewall and install the column for the last time.  I guess it's been in and out 50 or more times whilst making mounts and trying alternative ways of doing it..

Once I'm happy with the steering I can drop the motor back in and see what it's all like.to drive

Now it's time for you all to laugh at me.

I fitted the column and bolted it up to the rack this morning.

Seemed to go in OK.

The only issue I have with the whole thing, apart from it being a lot of work, is it only has around 160deegrees of steering wheel rotation then it stops with a loud metallic bang.

A quick look tells me the lower uni-joint yokes are binding.  The only solution to that is a longer shaft between the two lower uni-joints and that isn't going to happen without moving the rack forward or making the column move back in the cabin.  Neither will work as bump steer isn't fun and you do need to sit behind the wheel to drive it. I could trim the yokes but steering is a sort of safety thing so I'll leave them alone.

What to do?  I've done some belly button gazing and I think the smart move would be to buy another Nissan Pulsar column and modify it as I did the last one but use the MightyBoy lower Uni-joint yoke and run it with manual steering.  It can't be that hard to drive without power steer.  People drove Minis back in day with tiny (sub 200mm) steering wheels and seemed to manage.  Our 350mm wheel should be OK.

The mods to the Nissan column is to cut 50mm out of the double D section and slide it back together, combined with trimming 50mm off the outer column cover and swap the yoke.  At least I've done it before and it worked OK.  Additionally it was 100% legal.

Probably another weeks work and a month of procrastinating, but that's what this car is all about.

Double Cardan should fix it. You can get every size on line.

 

Lang,

The issue is I would need them top and bottom of the shaft, which would then need a centre bearing to keep it running straight.  There just isn't room to squeeze a centre bearing in together with the 3 pedals and 2 feet.

We all lived without power steer on small cars well into the 2000's so we can just build up our arms a bit.

As long as you drive fast the steering is lighter!

 

Can you get small CV joints to suit the shaft ?
They turn a lot sharper than a uni
Or maybe some agriculture type uni joints as they also turn sharper than automotive ones

CV joints would be the go though if you can get what you need and even have the D coupler doohickies machined to suit

Paul

Paul,

Good suggestions, however steering joints need to be designed and passed for use a a steering joint so a normal universal or CV wouldn't be acceptable.

We've tried all sorts of options over the years with numerous oddball builds.