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Josh
09-22-2020, 01:31 PM
I didn't want to spend $3000 cdn on a power steering column so I made one myself.

Used a motor from a Nissan Versa. Junk yard charged me $80 for it. Took about 8 hours to fabricate everything. Ran some big 8 ga power and ground wires to the relay compartment to power it all, fused a 60A.

This is not as good as the vendor offerings as it does not change the assist based on speed (yet), and it is not as polished looking, but the main function is the same for a fraction of the cost.

Initial thoughts after a short drive this morning:
- Really changes the feel of the car, will take some getting used to.
- Low speed turns are amazing. Feels like a modern car.
- It seems to remove some of the "road feel" and vibration in the steering wheel so many deloreans have
- Since my setup is not yet speed controlled like the vendor offerings it is a bit touchy at highway speeds.
- Turning it fully to lock is a bit violent of a stop. The motor can produce a lot of torque. I wonder what this will do long term to the U joints and steering rack.

Overall I am pretty happy. A very inexpensive modification that made a big difference. Once again purchasing a column from a vendor is your best bet in terms of quality and ease of installation. But very expensive.

Album: https://imgur.com/gallery/cQjVeK4

https://i.imgur.com/dF4cWagl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ZpLGdZhl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fmd0jYPl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uJRYpEel.jpg

Video:

https://i.imgur.com/VC9jh8h.mp4
Timeless
09-22-2020, 02:04 PM
You sir are the man. Your level of aptitude and willingness to tackle big projects is fantastic! :cheers:
Rich_NYS
09-22-2020, 02:10 PM
That's awesome, Josh!

Sent from my LGL164VL using Tapatalk
Mark D
09-22-2020, 03:49 PM
Really impressive job retrofitting that power steering. :jawdrop:

Was there anything in particular about the Nissan Versa motor (like the spline size, length, orientation, etc.) that you were specifically seeking it out, or was it just the first one you came across and figured you could make it work?

What additional mods will it take to make the amount of assist vary with speed?
Josh
09-22-2020, 05:03 PM
Really impressive job retrofitting that power steering. :jawdrop:

Was there anything in particular about the Nissan Versa motor (like the spline size, length, orientation, etc.) that you were specifically seeking it out, or was it just the first one you came across and figured you could make it work?

What additional mods will it take to make the amount of assist vary with speed?

Nothing special about it. Most of the Electric Power Steering (EPS) setups are similar. I pulled out of what car was available and it happened to be a nissan versa. A Yaris unit would be ideal as it has a direct VSS input, but i did not know that on sunday when I was at the wreckers LOL

This page does a great job at explaining the different units.
https://www.therangerstation.com/tech/toyota-electric-power-steering-eps-conversion/

To make the assist vary with speed I need to work with a friend and make a can-bus emulator to feed into the EPS module. I assume this is what DMC and DGo do, you can see a little box attached to the side of the EPS module.
In the mean time I will experiment with an extra ecu output to have the turn on signal turn off above a certain speed.
Josh
09-23-2020, 01:24 AM
Tonight I used a spare output from the ecu to turn the power steering off over a certain speed, and back on at another. This is a major improvement for the highway. Still, the delay is a second or two so I need to figure out a solution via the can bus instead of turning the whole unit on and off.