May 2007 Power Steering
I'm not looking to make any performance enhancements to the car so have limited the 'upgrades' to comfort and reliability. With comfort in mind something had to be done about the steering, which was designed for 5" cross ply tyres, now that it will be fitted with 6" radials. The thought of going back to the era of low speed manoeuvring with immensely heavy steering does not appeal to me but I wanted to preserve the 'drivability' of a series 1. The answer was Pressure Sensitive Power Steering based on a TRW electric pump. The pump monitors the effort applied through the steering wheel and only gives assistance when required, during parking for example. While driving the the pump idles and provides no assistance. Initial testing in the garage shows that the pump doesn't assist until a reasonably high effort is applied to the wheel, perfect for parking and hopefully no effect on drivability. More information can be found here: Steering Kit.
Finding a suitable location for the pump was a challenge, despite the size of an E-Type bonnet there isn't much spare room underneath. I finally settled on the area in front of the passenger foot well, this necessitated moving the brake vacuum tank to the other side of the car under the brake servo. The pump was supplied in a metal 'cradle' and this was modified to take 2 clamps for fitting to the lower frame rails, a third bracket was bolted to the bulkhead using one of the vacuum tank fixing points. The overall height of the pump in it's cradle is around 320mm so it is a very tight fit.
The redundant current & voltage regulator has been removed and the bracket used to mount the connector and fuse blocks for the pump. The kit came with a new lower column which is of the collapsible type used on later cars, I'm happy not to be using the old one.
The pinion housing of the power steering rack is much longer than the one on the manual rack so the splines of both upper and lower columns had to be fully inserted into the universal joints making it difficult to insert the pinch bolts. This was overcome by moving the steering wheel 15mm further out from the dash by use of spacers.
The pump wiring follows the route of the vacuum pipe to the connector and fuse blocks. One additional wire goes to the alternator so the pump doesn't run when the engine is stopped. For safety if the engine stalls the pump continues to run for 20 seconds gradually reducing in output. The plumbing is a little more difficult with steel pipes from the rack which require bending to line up with the flexible hoses from the pump.
Another advantage of this upgrade is the opportunity to fit a smaller wheel giving more leg room and visibility. This 14" Mota-Lita replaces the original 16" wheel.