TVR Griffith power steering conversion

[simon-gjlpm]

This is my first post since buying a Griff last week, I have a 500 with non PAS.

i have been looking through various threads regarding conversions to fit power steering.

I have spoken to "TVR engineer" in Norfolk regarding his electric power steering conversion service which i like the sound of but would like to know the following if anyone can help ?

is there an off the shelf electric or hydraulic kit i can buy and fit as i have a very good mechanic that could do this for me ?
Are there any other specialists that offer a fully fitted service ?

I read a long thread covering some DIY conversions using the subaru racks so thought a clever retailer might have assembled a k ?

I am considering electric or hydraulic so all help welcome.

Thanks Simon

[carsy]

Hi Simon, congratulations on buying the car.

I personally went the Subaru PS rack and an Astra MK 5 hydraulic pump. Cheap as chips and easy to do. I picked up a brand new rack on Ebay for £50. Pump £35. The electric column way is a bit more involved with welding skills needed.

I think Lloyd Specialist Developments also offer the electric conversion.

I`m not aware of anyone offering an off the shelf kit for either conversion.

[simon-gjlpm]

Thanks Carsy, loving my car so far but would like the misses to be able to drive it from time to time hence PS required.

My concern with the subaru route is having read the threads discussing various track rod ends and so on. i assume all pipework can be done with flexibles leaving just the metalwork to sort, do you have a list of exactly what parts are needed.

I dont want the car stranded at the garage for days while i try and get various fittings.

Thanks for the quick reply. Cheers Si

[chris52]

I went electric on mine as to me it's the best of both worlds you can have a switch to simply turn it off if you want to and it's back to standard manual steering. I followed the advice of Steve sprint on here and the job was not too bad I did it over 2 weekends. The only part I did not do was the welding on the steering column a friend who works in an engineering company had these welded by an expert coded welder. I also chose a torque sensitive module to go with it basically while on the motorway you put little force on the s/wheel and so little or no assistance is added, where as if your parking up you need to apply more so the assistance is much more. I must say it really has transformed the car my last Griff was standard power steering and I think this set up is far superior. I also contacted my insurance company as I wasn't sure if this would affect it and they said they don't consider adding power steering as a modification.
Chris

[petepetrolhead]

When mine was converted we kept the original TVR rack and grafted on a Corsa steering column with electric PAS - works a treat!. Here's a great thread with a lot of useful info:

http://www.super7thheaven.co.uk/blog/corsa-c-elect...

BTW we picked up a decent Corsa column from a breaker for £100.

[petepetrolhead]

When mine was converted we kept the original TVR rack and grafted on a Corsa steering column with electric PAS - works a treat!. Here's a great thread with a lot of useful info:

http://www.super7thheaven.co.uk/blog/corsa-c-elect...

BTW we picked up a decent Corsa column from a breaker for £100.

Edited by petepetrolhead on Saturday 15th April 14:48

[ephemera]

These guys do a lot of ready-to-mount kits, TUV approved, and have dealers to do the install or sell you the kit:
http://www.ezpowersteering.nl/car/7/49/TVR.html

[petepetrolhead]

When mine was converted we kept the original TVR rack and grafted on a Corsa steering column with electric PAS - works a treat!. Here's a great thread with a lot of useful info:

http://www.super7thheaven.co.uk/blog/corsa-c-elect...

[Mike8448]

carsy said:

Hi Simon, congratulations on buying the car.

I personally went the Subaru PS rack and an Astra MK 5 hydraulic pump. Cheap as chips and easy to do. I picked up a brand new rack on Ebay for £50. Pump £35. The electric column way is a bit more involved with welding skills needed.

I think Lloyd Specialist Developments also offer the electric conversion.

I`m not aware of anyone offering an off the shelf kit for either conversion.

I'm currently in the middle of this conversion, it fits quickly and the tvr track rods and ends screw straight into the subaru rack. So no modifications there to be done.

Just to add onto what carsy said;
Making the plates and adapters was cheap 40quid. What I have not got around too as yet, is connection of the lower steering column and uj connected to the rack pinion. I'm in no rush but there are several options,
1. weld the subaru uj onto the lower column.
2. Cut the subaru pinion down and reshape it to fit a Ford ka uj which connects directly to the existing spline of the tvr lower column.
3. It is also possible to have the subaru pinion reground so the original uj fits the subaru pinion.

None of these after market options will be a quick weekend job unless you have the proper friends on board. No one will do these conversions as a off the shelf because they need to ensure that everything is stress tested correctly etc and then there is the liability of it all if something did go wrong.

Best of luck.

[jeboa]

About to start getting the parts together to carry out the Subaru conversion.

It seems there are two types (lengths) of tie-rods available for the Griffith/Chimaera .

335mm

http://www.racetechdirect.co.uk/car-parts/suspensi...

and

295mm

http://www.racetechdirect.co.uk/car-parts/suspensi...

Any ideas which version is required to fit the Subaru rack?

[carsy]

The ones off my manual rack fitted the scooby rack perfect. I obviously bought new ones for the conversion and my local factors matched them up to be off a MK 5 Escort WITH trw power steering.

Sorry not sure of the exact length and im not with the car to measure.

[Pete Mac]

carsy said:

Hi Simon, congratulations on buying the car.

I personally went the Subaru PS rack and an Astra MK 5 hydraulic pump. Cheap as chips and easy to do. I picked up a brand new rack on Ebay for £50. Pump £35. The electric column way is a bit more involved with welding skills needed.

I think Lloyd Specialist Developments also offer the electric conversion.

I`m not aware of anyone offering an off the shelf kit for either conversion.

Ian, I am thinking of going this route mainly because of the lack of availability of TVR steering racks and rebuild kits. Basically when it's gone it's gone. Do you have part numbers for the Scooby rack and Astra pump? Pete

[simon-gjlpm]

It's great to see some good replies to this my only issue with the Subaru route is the UJ joining tvr column to Subaru rack so does anyone have one from a conversion they have done that I can get copied ?
otherwise I think might have to buy an old tvr PS rack get it refurbed and fit with an electric hydraulic pump which I reckon will cost approx £1600 without labour. Still much cheaper than buying a grif with factory PS fitted.

[carsy]

Pete Mac said:

Ian, I am thinking of going this route mainly because of the lack of availability of TVR steering racks and rebuild kits. Basically when it's gone it's gone. Do you have part numbers for the Scooby rack and Astra pump? Pete

Hi Pete, no sorry i dont have any part numbers. Re the rack, you need to make sure you get one with the removable pinion that is held on with 3 cap head bolts. When i was looking there were plenty on Ebay.

The pump is any off a MK5 or 4 Astra but you need the TRW version which is the most popular one anyway. Again loads on Ebay.


Have a look at this thread if you haven`t already which i`m sure somewhere mentions which period of Scooby the rack is off. It was Steve on this thread who was probably one of the first with this conversion.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...


Simon, re the machining of the pinion. Myself and Peter (Phazed) hand filed ours, carefully and slowly. It doesnt take too long and isnt too difficult. If you do go with the Ford Ka UJ, make sure you get a genuine Ford Item. The cheap ones on Ebay are terrible and not fit for purpose, well mine wasnt anyway. I bought a cheapy first just to check it was all doable and then replaced it with a genuine Ford item.

[pb450]

My Chimaera has electric PS fitted by Lloyd Development Services. Unit is from a Suzuki Wagon R and workmanship/finish is excellent. Price was pretty fair too.

Works perfectly, progressively diminishing from park speeds down to zero assistance above 30 mph. Cannot speak highly enough of it.

[Pete Mac]

carsy said:

Hi Simon, congratulations on buying the car.

I personally went the Subaru PS rack and an Astra MK 5 hydraulic pump. Cheap as chips and easy to do. I picked up a brand new rack on Ebay for £50. Pump £35. The electric column way is a bit more involved with welding skills needed.

Ian, next question; does this conversion involve any welding to the chassis?

The reason I ask is that I am planning to galvanise and coat the chassis, however before I do that I would like to do any chassis mods (if any) first. Pete

[carsy]

No welding. The only alteration i had to make to the chassis was to one of the triangular plates where the rack mounts are. I probably had to take about a cm off the very edge of it to stop interference with one of the hydraulic pipes. The nut on the union to be precise. Also had to file the same union nut down a little on one edge as its such a tight fit. All doable though.

Edited by carsy on Sunday 30th April 17:21

[carsy]

A few pics of how i mounted my pump in this thread.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Pete Mac]

carsy said:

A few pics of how i mounted my pump in this thread.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I think my next step is to go and get myself the right Impreza steering rack and then go from there, offering it up to the chassis etc. I think that may be a bit hit or miss as I am not sure how many versions there are and what the differences are. I suspect the Astra pump may be a bit more straightforward. Pete

[Bluebottle]

this may be a silly question, but why use a different PAS pump and not the std Rangie P38 pump which regularly come up on fleabay?