ELECTRIC POWER STEERING ADD-ON KITS

I can't imagine wanting the steering to be any lighter.

What on earth for??  To make Dr. Porsche turn over in his grave??  Oh, please . . .

We don't have power steering?

Pump up air in front tires.  If steering is heavy you have bad (Chinese) ball joints.

Bruce, don't let these naysayers put you off.  Go for it and let us know how it works*.

*I love telling other people to spend money on their cars.

Personally, I'd rather have power brakes.  When I owned my track Miata and my IM I first drove the Miata and then hopped in the IM.  Going from excellent power brakes to good manual brakes was a real eye opener.

Wow !! Did I bark up the wrong tree ?  To keep my car from being "squirrel y " at higher speeds I put 6 degrees negative caster on the front axle. I run 185's on the front with 22 psi. I do have ball joints and I think they do have a little more resistance than a link pin set up.  I also have a ZF LSD . Here's what I find when driving. Powering into a corner or curve I really have to hang on because it's already hard to steer and then punching more power to the rear wheel tends to try to drive me straight ahead. Shifting is also involved at or near the same time. I only have two hands so I am more taxed than I feel comfortable with.  My thoughts are that I would like to have only about 4 lbs of steering wheel resistance during all this. I am a male and do very well at one task at a time (unlike my wife who can do 6 at a time with multiple sub-tasks as well).

I appreciate your opinions, all of them, but would like more. Especially some that suggest who makes a good unit for our cars which don't require a bunch of major modifications......Bruce

Some replacement ball joints end up binding -- if they were recently replaced that might influence.  Cory has rack and pinion on the Hoopty.  Not power but more direct.  Wonder if 80# bag of sand in front trunk would make it better or (maybe) worse?

My car's front end setup is dead stock - just as VS delivered it. When I got the car, I started out with 28 psi all around (I knew better than all of those VW experts). The ride was very harsh and the steering skittish, especially on a rough surface.

I lowered the fronts to 22 psi (no real driver would use anything less, right?) and the ride improved a lot. So did the skittish steering. Finally (although I wouldn't admit this in public) I dropped the fronts to 18. The ride got even better and so did the steering. Just saying.

Guess what front tire pressure VW recommended for the original bug?

"...Powering into a corner or curve I really have to hang on ... Shifting is also involved at or near the same time. I only have two hands so I am more taxed than I feel comfortable with..."

You'll probably get lots of opinions here, but I was always taught that downshifting (along with braking) should be all over and done with by the time you reach the corner. Yes, it lets you concentrate more on steering your line through the corner, but it also makes sure the front/rear weight distribution is stabilized before you start asking the tires to turn the car.

For similar reasons, you should already be on the power (if just a little) as you enter the turn.

Watch some YouTube video of classic car racing (where they're still using old school manual gearboxes). The throttle blipping going into a corner (double clutching downshifts) is almost always complete before the turning starts.

Anyway, that's how I've always looked at it. Let the flame wars begin!

Thanks for that info... I just checked and I found that the tire pressure for bias ply was 17 psi front, 26 psi rear ... go figure and if I remember right on my 69 beetle the windshield washer ran off the spare tire and it would not work when the air pressure in the tire goto .... get this 18 pounds !!! So thanks Sacto Mitch I had forgotten how low the original VW pressure recommendations. 

Good input here.  I go about 22R, 20F, sometimes 24/22.  I think I will fiddle with a larger difference front to back, based on the above, see how it goes.  And the tips here on driving with purpose through a turn are good advice, the way it should be done.

You're going to like the lower pressure. 185s probably would do well with 16-17. Maybe 19-20 in a race. Try the old chalk-the-tread-and-sidewall trick and see what you have left after a good couple of high-speed turns. If there is chalk on the sidewall and none on the tread, then the pressure is just right.

The LSD is going to cause understeer under power because it's trying to speed up the inside tire to match the already faster speed of the outside tire. This naturally tries to rotate the car towards the outside of the turn. The lack of traction at the front due to the light weight does not help matters here. Try avoiding accelerating in the middle of corners, save it for corner exit where you naturally want to track out.

The extra caster increases the mechanical trail of the tire. For the same reason that it makes it more strongly center the steering, during a turn you will get more force transmitted back through the steering wheel because the increased mechanical trail has increased the leverage of the tire on the steering system.

If you can play with the anti-roll bars, a smaller bar in front / larger bar in rear will increase oversteer.

An electric power steering box is rather large for such a small car, I'm not sure there is actually room to mount it without intruding too much into the cabin, possible interferring with the pedals. You'd also have to shorten the steering column significantly and remove part of the gas tank to get it in. Finally, you'd have to build some sort of mount to properly and strongly attach it to the chassis. There is no metal structure to mount it to at that location in a stock vehicle and if it breaks loose while driving, it's not going to end well for you.

Thanks Justin and you others as well. What I've noticed is that the steering is hard even in "normal driving" and, of course, harder when I get on it.  I get it on the caster and the LSD too.  I guess I will try lowering the front  tire pressure and see if things improve as a first step. If this shows no improvement then I will disconnect the tie rods while the front wheels are on a pair of alignment swivel plates and check the turning resistance compared to just raising the wheels off the ground. Hopefully this will give some idea about what the ball joints are doing.  If none of this shows a problem or an improvement then I will look more closely at what electric power systems are most compatible for this application. I have seen some on Myers Manx cars and competition off road buggies. If any of you know of one to look at, let me know..........Bruce