Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

TS Astra I think I got mine from running in a front wheel drive rally car. Despite the short sighted people around... they have been in use in the Off Road Racing for many years for all the positive reasons mentioned.

The standard Holden Astra one is as robust as any on the market and given most people don't know what they are you can pick one up from a wrecker for as little as $250.

For the people who have not seen one they are power assist and have better feel than any Nissan (or any other) mechanical pump. They ramp up the pressure when needed and run in an idle state when nothing is happening. Mine is wired to a switch on the dash so I can turn it off when on the dyno.

If someone gets one and needs a hand with the wiring I can dig up something as it is as not straight forward with more than 1 power wire and from memory the wire colours are odd.

  • 8 months later...

Josh's 180SX has an astra pump fitted as there was no room to put an engine driven pump onto the VH45DE.

It's been wired up to run constantly, and works very well, but I think it would be better if it did have a controller (lucky the alternator is a 110Amp unit on the v8).

  • 2 months later...

well the astra pump works ok.

i installed one in the uas zed. its quite heavy. and on full lock it draws 75AMPS, at idle with no steering its about 25A.

these pumps were designed to be mounted very near the rack. one thing ive noticed is a slight lag in assistance as its mounted in the boot and has 4 odd meters of hose to the rack. (any hydraulic gurus chime in) we used -4 teflon. mayby -6 with a restrictor would of been better but once your going it feels fine.

they run at full speed 100% of the time. the electronics inside keep the pump at a constant rpm and feed in current to compensate for the pressure.

try using a simple accumulator... should be available from any available hyd supply joint. It just picks up the initial demand.

J.

HAHA good idea, gonna steal that idea :P

  • 5 years later...

Have plans (as in interested, talked a bit, done nothing towards acquiring the bits yet) for an R chassis and an S chassis, with the Astra pump setup and a steering quickener.

Main identifiable issue is lag on the assistance - unknown just how much flow capacity is available from the electric pump vs even a standard engine driven pump.  Neither is really spec'd for motorsport application.

They fit under the driver's side battery tray nicely. 1m run back to the rack, botlt them to factory GTR bov points.

Have a dumb unit, do wonder about getting a CAN one and if you could control it better than the internal logic on the dumb one.

Car hasn't really been run with it yet so we'll see how it goes

I would be really interested if anyone ever attempted to adapt a modern servo electric system to a Skyline, e.g. one of these Bosch units which are found in many modern cars:

http://www.bosch-automotive-steering.com/en/products/car-steering-systems/electric-power-steering-servolectric.html

I like the simplicity of these systems. I would imagine the control/electronics side of things might be the challenge given how different the steering feels on many similar models these days (e.g. different Porsche 911 variants), simply due to software changes.

 

  • 4 weeks later...

Hi, my stock belt driven P/S pump got a ripped hose under driving, the pump failed quickly as a result of that.

So, since it was hard and expensive to get a new pump here in Norway, I found a electric P/S pump from Mercedes A-class, wich got a reservoir in it, and that makes it easy to place around. Only require + and - power the way i installed it, so Hook it up with a relay and a switch, or on IGN. I found that this works very well for my daily driving, but I havent tried on track yet.

 

s-l640.jpg

  • Like 3

Acrula, which pump do you think is heavier the nissan one or the A-class? what car do you have? any pictures of where you mounted it?

I've weighed an rb26 pump and I think it was 2kgs, just the pump no belt, bracket or lines but I will double check.

I'm thinking of sneaking one in under the starter motor, even if it weight is close to the same, having it lower and further back would be nice.

Think I might head down to a wrecker and ask them if I can look at and weigh every type of electric pump they have.

Edited by aleks

Pretty sure that and all others would be to tall to fit there. 

Astra one is not light. Would be more than pump+bracket+belt+lines+res 

A class one looks a tad lighter

On 23/04/2017 at 5:48 PM, Acrula said:

I found that this works very well for my daily driving, but I havent tried on track yet.

Is there any difference in steering feel now that you are using the electric pump?

I agree Justin that a class one looks too tall, but I meant to try and fit another, smaller powersteering pump under there.

Going to try and get a hold of a toyota mr-s power steering pump. The astra pumps look abit too big/heavy for my liking plus I dont want to dirty my car with an opel part.

I just weighed a gtr pump with the pulley, belt, bracket and bolts and they come in at 4kgs.  Will weigh the lines and resevior and lines when I pull it off.

  • 2 weeks later...
On 1.5.2017 at 10:11 AM, JustinP said:

Is there any difference in steering feel now that you are using the electric pump?

Sorry for late reply. Not on this forum that often. I dont feel any difference at all under normal spirited street driving, but I have not tried it at the track yet. 

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • So, I started this repair and got as far as "fixing" the holes with some fibreglass. God all those years working on boats came back quickly. I decided I'd reach out to some rust guys just to see what they would say about it. I came across a guy about 40 mins away and went to see him. He said the windscreen needs to come out, that there might be some more bits around the windscreen and he'd quote them at the time. But his quote was $300 to remove and replace windscreen and $3k for the damage he can see. He said he could respray the roof for $1200 and the bonnet for another $800 (somebody has previously rattle canned it, its horrendous). This is $5300 + any small additional bits. It's a lot, I get that and the name of one of my fave youtube channels 'Not Economically Viable' comes to mind.  I'm not being financially rational, but I've taken him up on the quote. He's opening a new shop in November with more room, so we're waiting for that. I'll leave the currently missing headliner out until then. I'm looking forward to it being fixed and having the paint looking nice again (lots of clear coat issues on the roof too). / flame suit on.
    • Oh and some up-and-comings; New rear drivers wheel bearing. I'll do that this weekend while the diff is out. The car is already up and the d/c axles and missing exhaust will help with space. This is the last bearing for me to do and I've been dragging my feet on it. I also have some new EBC blue stuff pads for the car and some new brake fluid. I haven't ever flushed the fluid in this car and looking forward to it. I have 600 degree fluid to put in. Not exactly "race fluid" but better than the typical stuff I have been using.
    • A proper clutch/plate type mechanical diff with quite a lot of pre-load and high locking % is better for drifting. Much more consistent in its behaviour. A helical can be annoyingly vague and inconsistent in how it responds under the sorts of abuse found in drifting.
    • Some updates here. I pulled the entire interior out, minus some trim to respray the seats with Colourlock dye. It turned out really nice though I accidentally let the dog in the car after and she scratched up the front seat.  This is what it looked like before, the colour was just washing out everywhere but thankfully the leather was in good nic. Then after the respray   And after the bloody dog jumped in The headliner is out waiting to be retrimmed, but it will stay out now until Nov - see why below. I replaced the stereo/headunit with a period-styled Android headunit. I have no after pics, but I'll get some. This is because of the missing pixels. I tried to fix this twice with replacement ribbon cables but couldn't. Also the bluetooth interface I'd bought for this was crap. Then there's the rusty roof. Pics and info in this other thread. I have decided to get this repaired professionally, but I'll update that thread. This is why the headliner will stay out for now. I'll be getting the roof and bonnet resprayed at the same time the rust is fixed. I also had an interesting issue with my drivers door lock.  For a small period I was having issues getting any 12v power to the car - I mean *any*. It would have no dash lights, nothing. It happened while I was at the shops and I couldn't get in the car. So, we had 2 problems. The most pressing here is that I was locked out. I have only a single physical key hole on the car, the drivers door and no amount of turning would unlock the car. Surely it doesn't need power for this? The second issue is why am I losing all power periodically, The battery isn't dead, its almost like the battery isn't even there. Two issues that were surprisingly easy to fix. You fellow BMW over-engineering lovers will appreciate this. The lock in the door has 5 states; mechanical lock, electric lock, neutral, electric unlock, mechanical unlock achieved at -90 degrees, -45 degrees, 0 degrees, 45 degrees and 90 degrees. Although, the unlock is towards the front of the car, so opposite for LHD countries. Sticking the key in and turning 45 left or right is what is used 99% of the time. It activates the central locking etc. 90 degrees is for dead battery access and, obvs, only un/locks the one door. But because the mechanical lock is never used and is 27 years old, it seizes up. I was totally unable to turn the key far enough to get to the mechanical unlock (At the time of locking myself out, I didn't even know this was a thing). I eventually did it with some vicegrips and teflon spray.  I made a quick vid for other E39 peeps.   The battery issue is totally new to me also - It wasn't making sufficient contact between the post and the terminal. The terminal was bolted on tight, but the car wouldn't have power. After checking the battery with my multimeter I accidentally contacted the terminal and the battery post and the car got power. The battery was only a few years old and in good condition. I cleaned the post and the terminal with a wire brush, bolted it back on tight and never had the issue again. I'm still surprised that despite having solid contact it didn't work. Also, the car was getting Warragamba sized pools of water in the back when it rained. My initial concern was another rust problem. But when I went out on Weds while it was raining and while I had no headliner in I could see a steady stream of water coming through the roof mounted aerial. As this aerial is for the (now removed) car phone I pulled it out and whacked a blanking grommet in the hole. It seems fine now. I'm thinking I might get the hole permanently filled when the rust is fixed. Moving forward and things in progress; The tailgate needs some attention. I have taken all the trim off to clean it all and address some small rust spots. I have partially done all of this but I'll finish it up hopefully this weekend. As all the trim are now entirely devoid of trim clips I have bought a heap of strong velcro and I'm hoping it does a good enough job as any of this trim in good condition is super expensive and usually in Europe as we dont have many of the wagons here. Suspension and brakes!!! This is exciting. In the front; New control arms New sway bar links New lower Eibach springs (the only modification I'm planning on this car) M Sport shocks (these came with the car and will replace the longer shocks in the car) New top mounts Used 540i calipers (stock brakes suck!) New 540i disks and pads (22x296 mm for 528 and 30x334 mm for 540i) New front wheel bearings (thank all that is holy for bolt on bearings!) Annnnd in the back; New control arms New sway bar links Adjustable air suspension arms (fool the car into what the current height is so the self levelling suspension can match the new front ride height) New ball joints I'll also be doing a brake fluid flush while I'm in there. I'm planning on switching the car over to the 16's that came with it so I can clean up and respray the M Sport 17's. They've lost a lot of colour over the years and have some gutter rash. None of this will start until the E90 is back.
    • You mean you will regret it for drifting duties? I don't quite follow.
×
×
  • Create New...