Electric Power Steering in a 78 FJ40.

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thecrazygreek

thecrazygreek

A.K.A. TheCraftyGreek
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Just about to embark on the installation of a electric power steering kit that came all the way from England via Racer65.
This is going to be installed on the 78 40 I sold a couple months ago.
The new owner wanted me to store it for him for a while and while I had it to do a couple upgrades. This is one of those upgrades.
The other will be a Warn 8274 winch. Old school and beautiful!

So here's a pic of the beauty before the install begins. And yes that's my new garage! Epoxied the floor and everything. Going to be a much better place to work in.

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Beautiful rig! You do grea8 work! I look forward to the electric power steering install.
 
Here's a few pictures of the power steering set up.

As you can see it was packed very well.
Inside it had what looks to be a very nice, high quality power steering column. As you can see the finishes on this column are top notch.
There was a second smaller box which contained the electrical components.
Again all of the finishes and build quality of all of these components was absolutely fantastic.

I can't wait to get started on the installation!

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I've been waiting for someone to do this. Subscribed!
 
That is one good looking rig! It must be hard to add those goodies for someone else to enjoy. Please post some pictures of the install.

I recently added on to my shop and put some vinyl cove molding down around the edges. Gave it a nice finished look and covered up my bad carpentry!
 
My two questions if you don't mind sir:
(1) Coming from England, is it made for RH drive, or do they make a LH drive unit, or does it not matter?
(2) On one of the auto shows I watch they installed one of these units ( for lack of under-hood space after a gigantic engine install), and they claimed it was not as affective as a power steering gear box set-up. Do you have any specs or opinion on this?
 
Downey said:
My two questions if you don't mind sir:
(1) Coming from England, is it made for RH drive, or do they make a LH drive unit, or does it not matter?
(2) On one of the auto shows I watch they installed one of these units ( for lack of under-hood space after a gigantic engine install), and they claimed it was not as affective as a power steering gear box set-up. Do you have any specs or opinion on this?
Click to expand...

The unit will work in both left and right hand applications. There is a decal on the motor as seen in one of the pics that has this info.

As far as its effectiveness, I'll determine that when complete. From what I've heard it's pretty awesome.
Thanks for the comments.
 
This is going to be a cool install to follow, I hope it is a huge improvement. I read through the ebay listing for these and I really like the feature where if the electric steering was to loose power then it is just like driving before it was ever installed and not like when power steering goes out in a modern car.
 
Downey said:
My two questions if you don't mind sir:
(1) Coming from England, is it made for RH drive, or do they make a LH drive unit, or does it not matter?
(2) On one of the auto shows I watch they installed one of these units ( for lack of under-hood space after a gigantic engine install), and they claimed it was not as affective as a power steering gear box set-up. Do you have any specs or opinion on this?
Click to expand...

The mothership company is from the Netherlands, which is a LHD country. If you check out the photos on my website, you'll see that it's installed on a LHD vehicle. The subsidiary in the UK has also installed the same kit on a RHD vehicle, so there should be no difference.

As for effectiveness, EPS is quite commonly used in production vehicles these days, and all the components in this kit are used in production vehicles. Where you'll find limitations, I believe, is when you mod the vehicle to run gigantic tires and put it through a mud bog. In such hard core applications, the traditional hydraulic set up will be better suited to provide the muscles needed.
 
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EzPowerSteering

EzPowerSteering

  • Media owner x463
  • Date added
I'm curious about some of the dimensions - particularly where the unit ends up under the dash. Can you provide the dimensions in the attached pic? I mostly care about A, B, and C but all would be appreciated. Thanks!

PowerSteering.webp
 
x463 said:
Thanks...is C correct? Looks like the width of the steering assist unit would be more then 2.25"?
Click to expand...

C is correct. That's not the steering assist unit. It's just part of the upper steering column. Steering assist comes from the electric motor (the cylindrical shaped object in the middle).
As a double check: A through E adds up to F.
 
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