electric power steering

[ngodline12]

hello,
i getting sick of trying to adjust the belt tension on my power steering pump. I'm thinking that i might install an electric hydraulic pump. i see that there are kits available to do this for hot rods etc but they're really expensive. so i'm thinking to design my own system using an off the shelf pump from princess auto or some other supplier. anybody have any idea what the output is from the engine driven pump? i mean in terms of flow and psi.
i have a 1982 6.2 silverado 4x4
thanks
mike

[Dvldog8793]

Howdy
Ever thought of converting to a serp belt system and solving other belt issues at the same time? If you do it using the salvage yard for parts the price isn't too bad.

[john8662]

Was your truck equipped with AC?

If not, you probably have the single belt design, where only one belt goes around the power steering pump.

You could swap the power steering pump pulley for a dual pulley (of the same size), then swap the crank pulley, and water pump pulley for one with A/C (gives you one more groove). Then you could run two of the same belt on that power steering pump. That's what I do on one of my trucks never gives me any grief.

[ngodline12]

thanks for the replies. my truck currently has the 3 belt system. i thought about the serpentine system and i might still do that but i thought it would be cool to have a remote pump and maybe make better use of the limited space in the engine room. i realize that its a more expensive way to go but this is also a bit of a hobby for me so it doesn't have to be the cheapest way all the time. i can save money in other areas. for instance I'm still eating turkey soup from christmas. I'm thinking about going to an electric AC compressor as well. also not a cheap option.

[Dvldog8793]

Howdy
You will most likely have to upgrade to a better alternator. I just put a powermaster on my Blazer so that I could get solid output at the low RPM range. With the bigger alternator comes more power to turn it and another squeaky belt.... :rolleyes:
With an electric powersteering, low rpm high current would be a must.

[Yukon6.2]

Try a Goodyear belt
Put mine on 10 yrs ago and have never adjusted any of them.The Alt belt is beginning to squeak.And they get used in all temps.I've only put about 45K miles on in 10 yrs but it still shows Goodyear's Belts are built good.
Thomas
Just looking at my join date,they have been on for 12 yrs

[ngodline12]

i thought about that too. i am going to upgrade to a bigger alternator any way and i am thinking of a way to make an auto tensioner that would use the alt as the idle pulley. if that makes sense. i found that a lot of EV's are using mr2 pumps for the power steering. i might get ahold of one of those and try it out. not in traffic of course.:D

[trbankii]

Personally, I wouldn’t be making things more complex than they need to be. The electric power steering may sound neat, but what happens if you have issues and have something non-standard to get parts for while far from home? At least a non-standard A/C you can just opt to not use if it fails.

[ngodline12]

true. one of my plans was to get two pumps and run them on alternating days. then if one fails i can use the other. more moving parts i know. still has way less systems than a more modern vehicle. i had a 1988 dodge dakota once. the engine computer would **** the bed and go into limp mode. 1200 dollars later for a new computer and the associated towing and screwing around. this happened twice. its one of the reasons i when with the gmc's.

[ngodline12]

so all that aside. does anybody have any idea about the output from the steering pump?