More on electric power steering conversion ...

[lasitter]

oil pan 4: Many thanks!

[lasitter]

oil pan 4: I would never remove my thermactor / AIR pump for environmental reasons, but I've always wanted to know the power draw and whether there might be a smarter way to drive it. I've even thought about replacing it with an electric pump that could be more intelligently controlled.

Do you have one to test, or, if I sent you an air pump, could you run the same test on that?

[oil pan 4]

The air pump does one of 2 things.
#1, does nothing more than provide proof the government approved solution to pollution is dilution.
#2, it may prevent back fires, but on a properly maintained vehicle its not likely any way.

The air pump is just another accessory to turn, it doesn't do anything besides use more fuel. It makes emissions look cleaner by cheating, it blows air onto the exhaust, you would get the same effect by holding the emissions probe several inches away from the exhaust out let. Thats all its doing. It adds air to the exhaust to get tail pipe NOx down, even tho the vehicle produces the same amount of NOx with or with out it.

[niky]

Aren't there any Mazda electric racks at the wreckers, yet? If I recall, some Mazdas had electric hydraulic pumps... which might or might not work for you.

Originally Posted by jalmir

yeah but like I said, the Elantra I had previously wasn't as bad as the one I have now. At highway speed, the older one was like I had the PS pump working, it was noticable but barely, this Elantra seems dangerous with the pump off!

"Sportier" steering rack (shorter ratio). Harder to turn with assist off.

[racerc2000]

now I know this may or may not help you but.

I have a honda element and I just did a EPS swap I used a EPS rack from a 02-04 civic si.

when it came down to it the system is very simple. all together the whole setup consisted of 15 wires. a rack. a motor mounted to the rack and a small ecu

but in the end most was for diag or dash lights.

it consisted of 60A fused 4 gauge power,4 gauge ground. and wires getting signals from IGN(keyed power),VSS(vehicle speed),ESS(rpm)

not that it would help a large vehicle(though it may) the system is very compact and getting standalone sensors would not be hard

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

I'd be only concerned about the reliability of a light-duty EPS rack into a heavier vehicle...

Originally Posted by lasitter

Since you only really need power steering during low speeds and parking, occurred to me that you might be able to wire a relay to the brake lights so that whenever you hit the brakes, you'd get power steering full on for xx (pick a number) seconds.

The so-called "progressive power steering" is a very usual feature in other countries, but since Murricans enjoy those setups which can have the steering wheel turned with only one finger it's not so usual in the U.S. as in Europe.