How do i make the power steering in my car feel heavier. As in, i want the steering wheel in my car harder to turn, not heaps harder, just a lil bit. I dont have a solid understanding of how hydraulics assists in the steering system, but i have basic ideas. any help at all would be appreciated I figure it would involve changing the pressure in some hydraulics cylinder connected to the PS pump??
The easiest way... would probably be to change the power steering pump pulley with a larger diameter unit, then the pump would be spinning slower and feel 'heavier'.
Or, install a smaller crank pulley, with smaller belts... which will 'underdrive' your PS pump, making steering slightly heavier, although not sure how much? Heaps of guys on here put on underdrvie crank pulleys that also have the benefit of being lighter, and as the pulley isnt under so much load you free up HP as a bonus!
I don't think it is as easy as that. I'm not an expert on hydraulic systems ( touched on it during my trade course over 20 years ago) and I could be way off here, but think about this. You need the maximum power assistance when the car is just moving. when the car is just moving the engine, generally, is not reving very hard but you still get maximum assistance which means the pump is delivering the required pressure at a low speed. Any excess pressure would be going through the relief valve. At higher speed the engine, and therefore the pump, are reving a lot harder but you don't need any more pressure than what you need at low speed, therefore there would be more excess pressure going through the relief valve. Changing the diameter of the p/p pulley would probably not make any difference in the amount of assistance you were getting, It would probably reduce slightly, the amount of oil going through the relief valve. I think the only way to reduce the amount of assistance would be to change the valving in the pump. Maybe reduce the relieve valve spring tension so that it opens at a lower pressure. regards bollie7
hmmm, any other ideas? bollie, i think ur right btw, which is why my idea in the first place was to adjust something inside the hydraulics system, hmmm. who could help me with this?
Zed power steering is electronically speed sensitive, as in the faster the vehicle is travelling, the less power assistance is given. You could try; (a) using a series resistance in the wire from the power steering control unit (pin 7 on NA, Pin 8 on HICAS (TT) unit) to the power steering solenoid valve. Series resistor would probably be the go, but it would probably need to be one capable of dissipating some heat, and would probably be of a fairly low value (sorry, no idea how low - that would be up to experimentation) This would be the easy method to experiment with, but you'd need a selection of resistors and a bit of time to play around with it. (b) inserting a variable tap in the power steering solenoid to power steering rack line, if it is accesible, (c) you could try an electronic multipier circuit on the vehicle speed sensor input to the power steering control unit (pin 3 on NA, pin 6 on HICAS (TT) unit) to make the power steering system think that the car was travelling faster than what it was, thus lessening the ammount of power steering assistance. This is more complex, but would have the advantage that you could make it adjustable (d) run 5 psi in your front tyres :LOL::sick:
