Installing LARGER diameter Power steering pully to reduce Power Steering Assist?

Make sense? Or wishful thinking?

Some people have done this, with some success, and it has tightened up the steering on their cars.

Your opinions?

-ChrisCoaster

Reply to
ChrisCoaster
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ChrisCoaster wrote in news:a595596e-af4c-48dc-9c2f- snipped-for-privacy@p6g2000pre.googlegroups.com:

No sense I can figure out. KB

Reply to
Kevin

There's an interior part that increases steering effort and I don't know the name of the part. I just remember that one of the car magazines changed a power steering interior part on a project car....

And for instance...an Eldorado might have a high effort steering...a Corvette might have a high effort power steering...a Mustang GT might have a high effort power steering.

Reply to
R Mach

This shouldn't work, or at least not reliably.

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

Doesn't make much sense. You have basically the same steering effort whether your engine is at idle (~650 rpm) or at high revs (say 6500 rpm). So even though the pump speed varies by about 10x there is not much difference in steering effort.

You need to lower the hydraulic pressure by other means.

Reply to
Thomas Tornblom

Lowering the hydralic pressure is not really the answer. What you need to alter is the control valve.

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This would be done by changing the torsion spring, adjusting the ports, altering the relief valve pressure, etc. Dropping the relief valve pressure would change things (increase effort), but it is really better to work with the control vavle.

Regards,

Ed White

Reply to
C. E. White

It shouldn't make too much of a difference, and if it does it may not be a predictable one, because there is a control valve that is supposed to regulate the hydraulic pressure no matter what the pump speed is. If you increase the pulley size, you'll only have lower hydraulic pressure at low engine speeds because the pressure will drop below the point where the control valve works properly.

The solution is to alter the control valve and not the pump speed, and for some model cars there are aftermarket solutions, some of them adjustable, available at your local performance shop.

--scott

Reply to
Scott Dorsey

Won't work. The PS pump works over a very wide range of RPM. Except at idle (very low idle close to stalling, actually) it produces a surplus of fluid volume and all the assist regulation is performed by the valving in the steering gear or rack. Reducing the pulley diameter will just move the speed at which it no longer has a surplus UP a couple hundered RPM to near idle, and will annoy the pi$$ out of you because you'll notice a loss of assist EXACTLY when you need it most (turning into a parking space, for example...) At all other engine speeds, nothing whatsoever will change.

Reply to
Steve

____________________ Regrettably, there is nothing either in the two links you posted or on the internet in general about how to modify the control valve to either increase or decrease PS assist. Nor any info about how to lower the hydraulic pressure. I guess it's a black art - one existing in shade trees or at the track.

-CC

Reply to
ChrisCoaster

____________________ Regrettably, there is nothing either in the two links you posted or on the internet in general about how to modify the control valve to either increase or decrease PS assist. Nor any info about how to lower the hydraulic pressure. I guess it's a black art - one existing in shade trees or at the track.

Modifying the control valve is beyond the typical mechanics ability. If you had the skill and equipment you could increse the effort by installing a stiffer torsion spring in the control valve. You alter the system's hydraulic pressure by changing the relief valve setting - usually by changing a spring (although there may be an adjustment screw on some). There are other ways as well. If you decrese the area of the piston (ram) in the system, you will decrease the assist. Adding a flow restriction (an orifice) to the feed lines will reduce the amount of assist. This is probably the easiest way to modify an existing setup. Look at

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. This describes how a couple of variable assist systems work. It seems to me that you could adapt one of these system to a car and replace the speed based control with a manual control so the driver could tune the assist to taste. Also see:

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Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

______________________

I happen to be one of those thid-wicks that wouldn't know variable- assist from regular PS by FEEL. Except that my last car, a 2005 Malibu with the electric, had seemingly no center at any speed!

My current ride is a 2008 Kia Optima sedan, and knowing Kia's reputation for delivering dependability on the cheap, I feel safe assuming this Optima has a pretty straight-forward fixed rate PS assist.

With that said, the "narrowing orifice" option you mentioned sounds probably like the most simple and economical. I've also heard that using smaller diameter send & return hoses between the pump & rack also reduces assist. Is this true?

-CC

Reply to
ChrisCoaster

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