New Trooper Power Steering unit

[ricksrb]

Maybe the twitching is the wife poking the driver to slow down. On off switches for wives are much more expensive. Gems make a good switch.

Lenny

ropes,handcuffs,and even leaving them at home are much cheaper.Man am i in trouble....(lol)

[Kinarfi]

I am thinking about installing a dash mount on/off switch in-line so the power steering can be turned off at high speed on hard-pack & blacktop. I now have heard of two people complaining about the steering becoming twitchy at speed with the power steering & the factory steering rack. One with our unit & another with the factory Joyner electric power steering.

rocmoc n AZ

An aircraft circuit breaker is ideal for this purpose, if you want it off, pull the button, it also protects the wiring and the unit.

I would suggest a 20 amp breaker, that's what I have and haven't had it pop yet.

[rocmoc]

An aircraft circuit breaker is ideal for this purpose, if you want it off, pull the button, it also protects the wiring and the unit.

I would suggest a 20 amp breaker, that's what I have and haven't had it pop yet.

Do you have an on-line source?

Thanks, rocmoc n AZ

[ricksrb]

Do you have an on-line source?

Thanks, rocmoc n AZ

Are we talking about a 20amp breaker for that white wire that goes to the ignition switch??

[rocmoc]

Are we talking about a 20amp breaker for that white wire that goes to the ignition switch??

Yes the one that Kinarfi is referring to.

rocmoc n AZ

[Kinarfi]

Do you have an on-line source?

Thanks, rocmoc n AZ

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=klixon+20+circuit+breaker+&_cqr=true&_nkwusc=klixon+20+circuit+breaiker&_rdc=1

[Kinarfi]

If I remember correctly, the white wire goes to the ignition switch, the one that is on in the first position, not the run or the start, the red wire, (I thinK), that has the big red inline fuse in it will go to the circuit breaker. The white wire is just for turning the controller on and off, the red wire is the power supply and can be tied directly to the battery and needs no switching, except as a method to disable it if desired. The black wire can go to the battery or to the frame for ground.

[Kinarfi]

Yes the one that Kinarfi is referring to.

rocmoc n AZ

The white wire needs no fuse, no circuit breaker, nothing! it is only a signal wire and carries no current, put a switch in if you want to use that to turn off the steering with that method, or put a circuit breaker in the red wire/power wire.

Kinarfi

[rocmoc]

Thanks Kinarfi

rocmoc n AZ

[ricksrb]

The white wire needs no fuse, no circuit breaker, nothing! it is only a signal wire and carries no current, put a switch in if you want to use that to turn off the steering with that method, or put a circuit breaker in the red wire/power wire.

Kinarfi

thats correct.thats why i was questioning why to put a 20amp breaker on there if he just wants to turn the unit off while he is at high speed.why not just a toggle switch on the white wire to do that?

[rocmoc]

Thanks guys !

rocmoc n AZ

[Kinarfi]

thats correct.thats why i was questioning why to put a 20amp breaker on there if he just wants to turn the unit off while he is at high speed.why not just a toggle switch on the white wire to do that?

Rick, I already had the CB (circuit breaker) in my dash from my previous home made steering unit, so I used that, and hopefully, it would open before the fuse blew in over load condition an the fuse would blow immediately if the wires shorted, dual protection. I did not put a switch in the white wire, but it is a valid method.

Kinarfi

[rocmoc]

Worked off and on over the weekend and finished it up yesterday afternoon.Not having any trails nearby I was only able to take it for a short test drive. I found it to make at least a 60-70% improvement in 2wd,and 4wd. I did try it in 4wd with lockers and did notice a slight improvement,maybe as much as 20% but as I mentioned it was a short drive. This was on asphault.At a stand still on concrete and ashault you can easily turn the wheel completely in each direction with one hand.Bruhaw is stoping by this afternoon and will get his opinion on how it feels.Needless to say i am very happy.

Rick, how did you connect to the Long shaft. My connectors supplied with the unit is too small. Did you weld directly to the shaft?

rocmoc n AZ

[ricksrb]

Rick, how did you connect to the Long shaft. My connectors supplied with the unit is too small. Did you weld directly to the shaft?

rocmoc n AZ

I assume you are talking about stock long shaft down to steering box.I cut the stock oval flat sided tube in half,welded(i think) 7" long 3/4" black pipe on u-joint they sent with unit and welded the flat sided oval tube i cut on to end of pipe.See photo.

[rocmoc]

Thanks Rick, that is the shaft I am talking about. I know one other person process and I am looking at what will work best for me.

Thanks again,

rocmoc n AZ

[ricksrb]

Thanks Rick, that is the shaft I am talking about. I know one other person process and I am looking at what will work best for me.

Thanks again,

rocmoc n AZ

Your welcome.Reason i cut the tube in half and used the pipe to extend it is i am going to cut the remainder of the tube off the stock u-joint and weld a 12" long 3/4" pipe on it and the tube on the end of it.That way if i ever have to remove the power steering unit this shaft will slide right on to the stock shaft from steering box as before and u-joint will go onto end of steering wheel shaft.Hope that made sense.

[Guest Lenny]

Gosh Rick, seeing that picture of your install a few post above makes me think you need to throw a little dirt into the works. Are you sure you ever had your Trooper off road. NIce install.

Lenny

[ricksrb]

Gosh Rick, seeing that picture of your install a few post above makes me think you need to throw a little dirt into the works. Are you sure you ever had your Trooper off road. NIce install.

Lenny

thats cause of the great job the wife does cleaning it with a toothbrush after every trip.MINE!!!

[rocmoc]

Well I did it a little different but basically in the same location as Rick's. I noticed the u-joint end of the short Steering wheel shaft mounted under the dash had a LOT of extra length not being used. I cut the excess off and used it as a nipple between the u-joint connecter provided for the output for the steering unit and the existing u-joint connector on the end of the LONG shaft. I used the other provided connector between the input shaft of the unit and the short steering wheel shaft. I had to cut the two pieces (one slides into the other) of the LONG shaft to get the correct length between the rack & pinion and the power steering unit. Was really easy requiring no welding. Three cuts and bolt it together. Little grinding on the ends so the bolts slide in the connector on the ends and a little grinding so the connector would slide on the nipple and short shaft. Just have to make the bracket (using aluminum diamond plate that was on-hand) and plug in tomorrow. Don't want to over work myself.

rocmoc n AZ

[ricksrb]

Well I did it a little different but basically in the same location as Rick's. I noticed the u-joint end of the short Steering wheel shaft mounted under the dash had a LOT of extra length not being used. I cut the excess off and used it as a nipple between the u-joint connecter provided for the output for the steering unit and the existing u-joint connector on the end of the LONG shaft. I used the other provided connector between the input shaft of the unit and the short steering wheel shaft. I had to cut the two pieces (one slides into the other) of the LONG shaft to get the correct length between the rack & pinion and the power steering unit. Was really easy requiring no welding. Three cuts and bolt it together. Little grinding on the ends so the bolts slide in the connector on the ends and a little grinding so the connector would slide on the nipple and short shaft. Just have to make the bracket (using aluminum diamond plate that was on-hand) and plug in tomorrow. Don't want to over work myself.

rocmoc n AZ

Geniuses do think alike(lol) i originally thought of doing something like that but again my preference was to be able to remove the unit and go back to original just in case.Your way would have been my second choice because of ease.Hope you get us some photos.

[rocmoc]

I wanted to be able to do the same thing, return to stock if needed to. I will keep the pieces of the long shaft and can always weld them back together. Won't have to do anything to the Steering Wheel shaft as the long shaft would slide to the longer length. I take pcs of everything but am very bad about posting. Still haven't posted the pics from the Hanksville trip.

rocmoc n AZ

[rocmoc]

Today is the day! Finished bracket yesterday and almost mounted. I have to drop the pedal assy to put nuts on the end of mounting bolts. Would be all done except electrical but this morning I came up with another little mod I want to do to the long shaft. If it works I will share. In my head it seems like a good idea. This will require a little welding. A little behind because of a second project of making a kayak rack for the pickup. Had to pick up some metal for that project and may start that today as well. Also it turned cold the last two days, 40s at night and low 70s daytime, LOL ! I know that is still warm to most but down here it is cold and we are not use to it. Slow me up a bit but today is suppose to be 81.

rocmoc n AZ

[rocmoc]

It WORKED! The long shaft is two pieces. I cut a piece off of each. I used the female portion as is only shortened. I used the length I cut off the male and weld it to the nipple I talked about in an earlier post. Final result is a shaft similar to the original but shorter and a U-Joint on one end (female portion of the shaft) and the other end (male portion) shortened with teeth on the end to go into the NEW U-Joint connector provided with the Steering Unit. I weld the heck out of the joint between the nipple and male portion of the long steering shaft. My factory U-Joints on the steering shaft were very stiff. I hoped by removing one of the joints the steering would be easier and it WAS. I positioned the Steering Unit to min the angle on the U-Joints. I believe it is better than it was before and this also will help reduce the effort required to turn the wheels. NO welding took place on any of the new connectors.

Question. If I turn on the juice to the Power Steering Unit without the shaft attached to the rack & pinion, will the Unit self-center ? Share would help make things easier to center the steering.

rocmoc n AZ

[rocmoc]

OK, I did a temp install of the wiring so I could test drive. GREAT! I am completely satisfied with the unit. In my Trooper there is about a 80% improvement in everything but 4wd with front locker engaged. With front locker engaged about 40% improvement which is fine with me, at least it is more turn-able. I'm in front locker less than 5% of the time so this is a big improvement 95% of the time. On hard surfaces at speed the steering is not safe, YET (IMHO). I am going to put tow-in in the steering, at present I am nearly tow-out or even am tow-out. In a normal setup this would remove the twitchy feeling . Hopefully it will in the Trooper. What gives me a little concern is the slop in my rack & pinion maybe magnified by the unit. IN this case the replacement with a better rack & pinion will be called for. I know some of you like the present rack & pinion but I am not a fan. I planned my install around replacement of the rack so it will be easy when I find what I want. I lucked out and am center neutral. I didn't have to do anything to center the steering. But I wasn't watching the steering wheel itself and it is not centered. Will have to pull the steering wheel and rotate or pull small shaft with Steering Wheel and rotate. Either way this is small potatoes ! My current problem now is one of my brake calipers is hanging up so that moves to the top of work to do on the Trooper.

Best $ spent behind Tires/Wheels, Cage mods & Shocks.

rocmoc n AZ

[2scoops]

Took it for a test drive in the mountains today. Any concerns of it being squirley at speed were erased. It is actually more stable due to the bump absorption properties of the steering unit. I think my first drive felt herky jerky because I didn't have it centered correctly. I went up some pretty hairy stuff today and just kept 1 hand on the steering wheel & 1 on the shifter. I think the best quality of the unit is the bump dampening. It just makes it feel like a high end machine instead of a chinese kart. Can't wait to take it to Moab. Since I had play in my steering shaft where they slide together I just drilled a hole where they slide together & installed a grade 8 bolt--slop is gone.

[Kinarfi]

It was basically a side note on a previous post, but to adjust the center position on the steering unit, the best method I came up was to measure the voltage to the motor and then adjust the potentiometer so you have 0 volts to the motor, then turn it left and right and see if it returns to 0 when you let go of the wheel, if you turn the POT one way, you will get a negative reading, the other, a positive reading, from 0 V to 1 or 2 volts, it just makes it hard to turn one way and easy the other way, even down to tenths of a volt, in my case, .4 V, wouldn't turn the wheel, just made it favor one diection more than the other.

Kinarfi

[Guest Lenny]

Took it for a test drive in the mountains today. Any concerns of it being squirley at speed were erased. It is actually more stable due to the bump absorption properties of the steering unit. I think my first drive felt herky jerky because I didn't have it centered correctly. I went up some pretty hairy stuff today and just kept 1 hand on the steering wheel & 1 on the shifter. I think the best quality of the unit is the bump dampening. It just makes it feel like a high end machine instead of a chinese kart. Can't wait to take it to Moab. Since I had play in my steering shaft where they slide together I just drilled a hole where they slide together & installed a grade 8 bolt--slop is gone.

Any slop in the steering is going to make it twitchy. The power steering will just magnify it. Need to get all play out. I never did like the way they slid one steering shaft into the other. This was done for assembly I beleive. Bolting it thru is a good way to do it except I would probably use two bolts. Before I changed mine, I took the flat peice of spring steel in between the two shafts and bent more so that I had to tap the two shafts together pretty hard to get them to slide one on the other. That helped take some slop out and was eeasy. Mine no longer telescopes at all.

Lenny

[2scoops]

Took it for another ride. I am even more impressed. I was going over 3-7 inch rocks with maybe an inch of deflection in the steering wheel. I used to wear gloves when I went out--I don't need to anymore. I was wheeling with one hand all weekend. Also, it has taken all the wheel wobble out of my steering at high speed. The 30" ATV tires I have are impossible to balance and I have always experience a little shaking in the wheel when going down a flat road, but now it as smooth smooth smooth.

Also, I drove my friends RZR 4 with out powersteering this weekend. My Trooper rides softer and is quieter. Now with the powersteering--fugetaboutit. Whenever we'd hit rocky sections he would fall behind. I am sure he could have kept up if he wanted, but I know he was slowing because he was getting jolted more than I was. Now I just need to improve the braking.

[rocmoc]

I have to agree the electric power steering is a great upgrade! Every time I drive mine I like it even more!

rocmoc n AZ

[Kinarfi]

While I was out at the dunes, my steering started pulling to the left, I hit a bump and it fixed, then came back, something to work on tomorrow along with figuring out how to put my new heater core in.

Did a fair amount of 4X4 + Lockers and no problems being able to turn the steering wheel and hold it there.

My son got himself a RZR 4 seat and it out climbed my on the hills, I have a slightly tighter running radius, seems like a fine machine, but when I went to take for a ride, I could barely get in behind the steering wheel and there was no way I could get my foot on the gas pedal and even worse for the brake pedal, so the wife drove, for me it's still the Trooper!!!

Kinarfi