Thread: Power steering mods?

Anyone ever speed up their steering on our B13's via a steering quickener? Or perhaps there was a faster rack available in Japan? [GTiR?]

How about improving the low speed performance of our power steering systems? Any of you who have autocrossed our cars know that the steering effort is really high when we saw the wheel left and right really quickly during a low speed slalom. Anyone ever messed with the spring in the pump or drilled the restrictor for more flow? Example: powersteering

Interested in this, I myself would like to use the power rack guts inside of a manual rack body to keep the quicker steering.

Well I checked the shop manual for the B12 and B13 Sentras and found that the B12's used a power steering pump pressure of 998 psi. The slightly heavier B13's use [they give a range] between 1,110 and 1,200 psi. I don't have any shop manuls for other Nissan models, but I'd like to know what the pump pressures are for newer/heavier models like Pathfinders, Quests, Maximas, etc. The pump pressure spec is in the ST section on the last page. Anyone got any of those manuals?

Hi Mike. I have a GA16 PS pump I tore apart many years ago and blueprinted the passages. I enlarged the output for volume. I never ended up using it. It's yours if you want it.

I remember when my cousin's then-new SE-R would boil and cavitate the PS fluid when driving it hard at an autocross. Tim Mather experienced the same thing when running slicks on road coarses. Anytime the PS was heavily loaded the fluid would foam up.

I remember doing research on this issue and the general consensus amongst circle track and road racers was that the return line needed to be as large as possible, and the cooling needed upgrading. The heat and pump agitation created air bubbles in the fluid (the foam) and while hydraulic fluid is not compressible...air is. So when this happens it stops being power steering.

I figured the pump work wouldn't hurt. There are a lot of sharp 90 degree internal turns, so I generally radiused everything and polished the internal passages, plus enlarged the output passage by about 20% (baby steps).

Bob

Bob, that is awesome and much appreciated. I'll get in touch with you to facilitate acquiring the pump. Looking forward to testing it.

Mike

I think if you used the longer MANUAL steering rack arms on a power steering rack, you could have more response, as well as more steering angle. Plus, you'd get to keep the PS.

Thanks for the input. When you say steering rack arms" do you mean the inner and outer tie rods assemblies? If so, I don't see how installing longer tie roads would do anything but change the toe.

I think you'd need to relocate the hole for the tie rods inward like this if you wanted to speed up the steering:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbCt6eFP-ZA