Tuesday, September 11, 2012

"Power" Steering

....another thing that must be figured out in an EV conversion. In most cars, the ICE drives the power steering pump, giving assist to steering. Many newer cars have electric power steering, which would not require any attention in an EV conversion. But cars like mine? Yeah, something has to be done.

It would be as easy as driving the power steering pump with a belt off of a pulley on the accessory side of the electric motor, but this has the drawback of always wasting power to drive the pump. Instead what I have decided to do is to convert to armstrong steering. My strong arms will do the work. Get it? Ok, really dumb joke. Sorry.
All I have done is removed the power steering pump, lines and fluid reservoir and looped the steering rack pressure and return pipes with a piece of hose to keep stuff out. That's it. Will I have the strength to steer this thing as low speeds with lots of batteries weighing the car down? I sure hope so.

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