POWER STEERING FOR CLASSICS

John Paulding investigates electricpower steering for classics and guidesus through some uncharted waters.

If you are lucky enough to havea modern car as your daily driverand a classic that only comes outwhen the sun shines, you’ll be alltoo aware of the contrasts whenyou jump into your classic. Quirkyperformance, no air-con, heavysteering... you know the story. Ialways figured that owning aclassic was about having fun and ifthe car wasn’t fun to drive thenthere wasn’t a lot of point owning it.OK if the car was totally originaland mint things might be different,but the car wasn’t totally originalwhen I bought it so I wasn’tadversed to making some changesto make it more drivable andcomfortable. It now has electronicignition to make it more reliable,central locking for convenience, aircon since it’s mostly used in thesummer.... but that heavy steeringwas a problem that I couldn’tsolve. The 2002 never came withpower steering. The 3 Series E21that followed had it, but that had atotally different rack and pinion setup instead of a steering box. It ispossible to fit an E21 rack in an 02- see the excellent M3 poweredTouring of Nick Vyse -http://www.m2bmw.com - so itfollows that it might just bepossible to fit a hydraulic powersteering rack, but the work involvedwould be considerable, so the idearemained on the back burner formany years and I learned to accept

the heavy steering.Then I came across something

at the SEMA Show last year thatchanged my thinking. An Americancompany was offering electricpower steering for rods and classicAmerican cars. A briefconversation confirmed that theconversion was feasible on prettywell anything but the distancebetween me and them effectivelyexcluded doing anything with thecompany. When I got home Istarted searching the internet andfound a firm in Holland that weredoing similar conversions and theirwork was geared to classicEuropean cars. Mostly Jaguarsand Volvos, but I soon found outthat they had also done someBMWs including a 1963 BMW 2800CS Bertone coupe... and they werejust about to start on a 2002!

By the beginning of this yearthey had converted two 2002s, onein Holland and one in Germany.They reported that they had solvedall the problems and the ownerswere ‘delighted’. They also had anagent in the UK, down inTeignmouth. Hmmm. Time to headfor sunny Devon and check it out.

Turns out sunny Devon wasn’t allthat sunny. Torrential rain almost allthe way and Teignmouth is a longway from East Anglia. Just a mileshort of 250 miles door to door and

my aching arms were testament tothat. Still the rain couldn’t dampenmy spirits... I was going to have thefirst RHD 2002 with powersteering... cool or what?

EZ Power Steering’s UK agent,Mike Waters, showed me round hisworkshop - on top of the cliffsoverlooking Teignmouth Bay. Ifyou’ve got to go to work every dayit helps to have a location like this!

POWER STEERING FOR CLASSICS

Then Mike talked me through theconversion and showed me theparts that had arrived fromHolland.

The conversions are totallyelectric. There are no hydraulics atall. These are the power steeringsystems found in many modernsmall cars particularly the smallerJapanese ones. The motors andother parts of the units are sourceddirectly from the OE manufacturersin Japan - Koyo and NSK - whomake power steering for themainstream motor industry.

EZ then select the most suitablemotor for each application anddesign a conversion that will becompletely hidden underneath thedashboard. The original steeringbox is retained so the ratio remainsthe same. The motor with newsteering shafts directly replaces theoriginal inner steering column. Noholes are drilled and there is nocutting or welding to the chassis orbody, so the car can always beconverted back to its originalsystem. Under the bonnet thereare no changes, everythingremains as original making theconversion almost invisible.

Mike explained that powerassisted steering needs to beproportional to speed. You needmaximum assistance at parkingspeeds but that assistance needsto fade as speed increases. Fullpower assistance at motorwayspeeds would make the cardangerously undriveable. The firstconversions had potentiometers tovary the assistance manually, butthe conversion he would be fittingto my 2002 had the latestelectronic speed sensor that fittedto the speedo cable and controlledeverything automatically. Nothingto see, nothing to adjust.

The conversion itself mainlyinvolves methodically dismantlingthe original steering column andmoving the components over tothe new power steering unit. Thebrackets for the column stalks andthe steering lock are transfered,although you need to think aheadas you work. Refitting isn’t quite thereverse of dismantling. Some partscame off the bottom of the oldcolumn. They had to go on to thetop end of the new unit because ofthe motor, so you need to work outthe fitting order. Three attempts

later we got it right!The guys in Holland had told

Mike that although this was the firstRHD 2002 conversion everythingwould ‘drop right into place’. Afterall the right hand drive version wasjust a mirror image of the left handdrive model. Well, we all know that‘it will drop right in’ is one of theGreat Lies along with ‘The chequesin the post’, ‘This won’t hurt a bit’,and... well you know the rest. Itseems that the Dutch guys didn’trealise that although LHD 2002shave pedals that come up throughthe floor, most right hand drivemodels have pendant pedalsmounted on the bulkhead. Theshroud around the lower shaftwouldn’t fit between the pedalpivots and the motor fouled thebrake light switch. I left Mike tofigure it out and headed for thehotel.

Needless to say it eventually gotsorted and when I collected the careverything fitted and it all workedperfectly. We took it down the hillinto Teignmouth to try it out in thecar parks and around the tight oneway system. The first thing yourealise is that the power steeringdoesn’t work when you arestationary. This is a useful reminderthat you shouldn’t be turning fromlock to lock unless you are movingand helps prevent the driverputting unnecessary strain on thesteering components. However assoon as the wheels are rolling the

power assistance is there. Parkingis a breeze and the quick left, right,left flicks made short work of themini roundabouts in the one waysystem. In short the car drives justlike a modern car. After a fewminutes you forget its 36 years old!

Now for that journey home. Thedrive down had been quite a strain.What would the home run be like? Iheaded for the M5.

Just as Mike had promised theassistance faded as the speedincreased. By 40mph all signs ofpower assistance had gone andthe steering had full ‘feel’,maintaining confidence atmotorway speeds. I pulled off atthe services and as I deceleratedthe assistance came back. A quickflick of the wheel and the carslotted into its parking space.Perfect. ‘It does what it says on thetin’.

Although there’s nothing muchto see after the conversion thework behind it has beenconsiderable. There is a torquesensor controlling the system andvarious ‘fail safe’ safety devices.For instance if the electrical systemshould ever fail the steering wouldbe just as it was before theconversion - unlike a hydraulicfailure on a conventional powersteering system - and theassistance would diminishgradually to avoid any drama. (If acar fitted with an hydraulic system

What wouldn’t you give to have a view like this from your workshop window?

had a fault the steering wouldimmediately become extremelyheavy). In the extremely unlikelyevent that the motor should bind,there is a clutch unit which willdisengage the motor from thesteering column ensuring that thesteering will always function freely.

There are other differences fromhydraulic systems. In a hydraulicsystem the hydraulic pump iscontinously operating when theengine is running. This generallyuses around 4 horsepower andtherefore affects fuel consumptioneven when driving straight ahead.An electric power steering systemconsumes very little current,typically around 5 amps, and onlywhen changing steering direction.It won’t make undue demands onthe electrical system and EZconversions have even beensuccessfully carried out on classicsequipped with dynamos ratherthan alternators! The system workswithout making a sound. There’snothing to leak and it’s completelymaintenance free. The torquesensor tells the ECU just howmuch assistance to provide andwide tyres and small steeringwheels are all taken into account.

The current application listincludes Aston Martin, AustinHealey, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mercedes,Opel, Saab, Volvo and of course,BMW. Their first MGA had justarrived as I left. Prices for theconversion are around £1300 for asmall car such as the 2002 rising toa couple of thousand for biggerand more exotic classics. If aparticular classic isn’t included, asystem can be tailor made withreasonable ease and electricpower steering may well be thepreferential option even on modelswhere hydraulic power steering isavailable from the breaker’s yard.

For models already on theapplication list the conversion timeis around a day and a half.

Well, I’m a happy bunny. Theconversion works fine. The onlyproblem I can see for most of us istheir location down in the WestCountry, but they are working onthat. EZ Power Steering haveagents in several countries andthey are now in the process ofappointing dealers in local areas tomake the conversions moreaccessible. This may be the firstRHD 2002 with power steering, butI don’t think it will be the last.

JJoohhnn PPaauullddiinngg