stiffen up that power steering. (Ford content)

Bozwell · Post by **Bozwell** » Mon Jun 23, 14 7:48 pm

thought you might be interested anyway bit of a long story but here goes.

a customer sent his '67 Shelby Mustang GT500 over so i could look at the power steering issues it had.

the Shelby (now on different tyres. i haven't taken any resent pictures of the car)

now sorted

oh and if anyone is going to the festival of speed the Shelby will be there somewhere (i'm not there as i'm at Brands working that weekend)

ive edited this post for now in case there is a marketing oppertunity as i cannot find anything like my modification on the net.

i'll resubmit at a later date

Bozwell · Post by **Bozwell** » Mon Jun 23, 14 7:51 pm

jerry · Post by **jerry** » Mon Jun 23, 14 7:55 pm

Good post Boz interesting stuff

Bozwell · Post by **Bozwell** » Mon Jun 23, 14 8:03 pm

i forgot to say it is 7.5 litres with a tad under 500hp with a four on the floor.

Mossy68 · Post by **Mossy68** » Mon Jun 23, 14 8:25 pm

Good work Boz.
Very interesting. I wonder who will be first to try it on a Mopar ?

RW71 · Post by **RW71** » Mon Jun 23, 14 8:54 pm

A very interesting read Boz, thanks for sharing it.

I bet that 16:1 ratio was a struggle with no assist, especially with a four speed!

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Tue Jun 24, 14 9:45 am

you can stiffen up a mopar power steering if you have a saginaw pump

by removeing the valve in the outlet from the pump
and repalcing it with one from a slant 6 car

or dismantling the valve and adjusting the shim thickness

method

1) take off pump outlet pipe
2) take off the pump outlet barb
3) fish out the pressure valve and spring
4) put spring back in
5) clamp presure valve in soft jaw vice
6) use spanner on hex end to dismantle
7) remove spring and shims
8) measure shims
9) add in 25-50% more shim thickness to reduce pump line pressure by 1/4 to half

result
1400 lb line pressure reduced to 1050 or 700

resulting in 25-50% more feel.....

slant 6 car valves have double the thickenss of all others so its an easy swap if you have a slant 6 saginaw pump.

if your pump is already worn and down on pressure this sin't going to help

i can take no credit.

its a Mopar action tech feature

Dave

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Tue Jun 24, 14 9:49 am

obvioulsy saginaw pumps were used on more than just mopars

Dave

Bozwell · Post by **Bozwell** » Tue Jun 24, 14 6:45 pm

yes that is a way of making the steering heavier and is the way it's usually done. but there is a problem with that method that will be over looked

it's mainly a Ford thing and i edited the first long post. will upate later

autofetish · Post by **autofetish** » Tue Jun 24, 14 8:59 pm

she is lovely thanks for sharing

Bozwell · Post by **Bozwell** » Mon Jul 21, 14 6:45 pm

well it seems there is a company that had done this mod.

so i'll spill the beans.

seems i'm not the only one who has worked this out.

for heavier steering just fit a heavier centering spring. works a treat.

the two springs are at the fitted length. with the heavier spring the steering has a nice weight to it. i made metal cups for strength as the plastic ones would be under more strain

in a Mopar steering box there will be a similar system of centering springs to 'sence' steering inputs. basically fitting heavier springs will make the steering heavier which has the advantage of being manual (depending how heavy a spring you fit) for normal driving but will still have power assistance when needed.

difficult to explain but the steering has the same weight for parking with the power assistance as it has when driving along so there is not sudden cutting in of the power steering . it is very linear in feel.

i will strip an old power steering box to see how easy they would be to change. it may be worth getting some springs knocked up so if anyone needs to rebuild their box they could just slip a couple of springs in.

Bozwell · Post by **Bozwell** » Mon Jul 21, 14 6:58 pm

Dave999 wrote:you can stiffen up a mopar power steering if you have a saginaw pump

by removeing the valve in the outlet from the pump
and repalcing it with one from a slant 6 car

its a Mopar action tech feature

Dave

the problem with this is there is still power assistance although watered down. but what it does mean is that you are pressing harder on the soft springs so you get more play in the system. for normal driving there will still be unwanted assistance due to the spring still allowing the valves to open at light steering input where as fitting heavier springs a heavier input is needed before the power assistance comes in.

even steering racks have a similar system but it is a torsion bar instead of a coil spring. fitting a stiffer torsion bar will make the steering heavier and again be very linear on feel

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Tue Jul 22, 14 3:28 pm

ah i see

and of course any spring is linear in its nature provided you don't bend or stretch it too far Hookes law

hence the effect...

smashin

Dave