Has anyone have one of these installed in their Mark 2?
I’m interested in your opinion.
Regards, Graham
No have not. I run on historic plates expect such an installation would be a significant change away from “unmodified” making me ineligible. Would have to go down the “modified” course for a registration concession if I fitted this system. Paul.
imo, electric steering gives a shite feel, I dont like them (in newer vehicles)
I vastly prefer the feel of power assisted hydraulics and that is what I would fit to my MK2,
if at all possible
I have generally heard good reviews / reports about this - assuming we’re talking about Simon Birchall in Lancashire. This week a friend is having the mod to his 1960’s Alfa.
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Before I bought my V8-250 I drove a couple of Alvis TD21s. One of them had no power steering and felt right although very heavy and the other had had an electric power steering fitted recently and was awful - it really didn’t suit the car at all and it twitched around all over the road.
The owner thought it was marvellous and was his best argument for me to buy it!
twitchy is how I would describe them in a modern car, for which they are designed
This is fine if you want to drive hard for sure, but not so much for relaxed cruising
If the OP can put in the Marles Variamatic, as can be had in the Daimler V8,
I would fit that, light as a feather,
I would not fit a Burman
I have just fitted this to my Mk2 and I love it! It really helps with manoeuvring at slow speeds and also when on the go. Altogether less effort. I don’t drive my car hard but can corner as well as it used to without the system. You can adjust the steering effort by use of a knob. I attached mine to the undertray. I have it set on about 80% which seems about right. Its not like traditional hydraulic power steering on a classic car which is very light at all speeds. Its also not like the electric power steering that is in my modern car. It just helps out my increasingly puny biceps! I fitted a new 15 inch steering wheel as the original was badly cracked around the centre. The smaller wheel and assistance seems to make the car feel smaller somehow. It always felt a bit like a lorry with the 17 inch wheel!
It wasn’t difficult to fit but does require some non structural metal to be removed under the dash.
Although I haven’t done a really long journey so far I would recommend it highly.
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Wonderful. Can you tell us a little more about the installation? Having spent time under my dash, I find it not too fun a place to be, so did you remove the seat and frame, entire column? How about eventual access to things like the speedo head? Can you still get to it?
Is this a system for a manual steering car or one already with factor power steering?
Hi, its for the manual steering. It completely replaces the upper steering column. I was out in Vern for mother’s day earlier and I am very happy with the steering response. Reverse parking at the super market was easy with one hand.
Driving home through the lanes I had good feel of what the steering was doing and felt really comfortable with it.
As with everything the other components have to be up to scratch. A few years back I completely rebuilt the steering system, including having the steering box rebuilt with a new worm and nut. The drag links were replaced with re-bushable items with nylon inserts and the lower column was rebuilt with new joints and rubber coupling. There is practically zero play in the system.
If the electric system fails then the steering just goes back to unassisted steering, so you’re not stuck with an undriveable car.
I haven’t got a bad thing to say about it so far!
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This is not a job to do if you’ve got a bad back! The drivers seat has to come out. I found even with two large cushions to lie on I got a sore neck and back! You have to remove the upper column completely. That’s pretty easy. The new column requires a hole to be cut into the cross piece that is spot welded to the inside of the bulkhead. If you have a left hand drive car the hole is much smaller as the motor unit doesn’t interfere with the cross bracket. On right hand drive cars it does. I’ve attached a photo which shows roughly the piece of metal that must be removed. The new unit fits to the same attachment points at the upper end. I had to make a thick metal spacer to add to the other two aluminium spacers that were already at the upper attachment point. Even with the metal removed the unit would only fit so far into the space.
Attaching the splined end to the lower column is some fun. With the old column you can slide the inner column in and out but not so with the new one, so its a bit of a pain lining up the splines with the UJ socket to get it too fit. Someone to hold the column (Which weighs a few kilos) is very helpful whilst you line it up in the engine bay. Once it slides in the new column has the cut out to allow adjustment. and its a case of moving it slightly backwards and forwards to ensure that the new column motor and gearbox aren’t touching the bodywork.
The installation doesn’t affect access to anything above the column. I changed my speedo and rev counter bulbs for LEDs whilst doing this job. It is tight up there, especially if you’ve got big hands but the new steering column isn’t any wider in that area than the old one. It also has welded on attachment for the indicator and overdrive stalks. These are just the same as the originals.
The system retains the adjustable length in and out steering column. You just use the splined inner piece from the old column.
All in all I think its a well engineered piece of kit. The wiring is simple: It needs a switched ignition supply, A heavy duty permanent live and a heavy duty earth. All the other wires just plug into the control box which I situated above the accelerator pedal.
A competent amateur mechanic could install this. (Ha Ha I did!) or a garage could fit for you. The UK dealer will also fit it, but it added £900 to the cost and I wanted to do it myself.
I did decide to convert to negative earth and fit an alternator to help with the extra load that the electric steering puts on the system. These units are available left or right hand drive and negative or positive earth.
Very nice work. Thanks for posting the details and answering questions. I’ve been tempted by this, but I’m chronically behind on my car projects, so not sure when I’d get to it. It also looked like installing it under the dash could be real misery, but you make it sound not unreasonable.
I did a custom short manual rack and pinion in my mk2 and I love it, although it’s a little heavy at rest with my 6" rims and larger tires. I think your conversion would work well with it. In the short term, I might go back down to 5" in the front when I change tires.
How many hours would you say you spent just on the electric steering part?
The EZ UK rep quotes 3 days in his workshop to fully install one.
Now I know fully what’s involved in the process I reckon I could probably almost match that time!
It took me about a month because I’m slow, I’ve got family and work commitments and I get sidetracked! I cut out the hole and then spent ages cleaning up and rust proof painting the area including scraping off a load of rubber insulation matting that was on the floor. No matter what job I’m doing I always go much further than I intended, but that’s the pleasure of DIY. You can do the job the way you want it.
I don’t think it’s a difficult job at all. The instructions that are supplied with the kit aren’t brilliant to be honest.
It will be interesting to see how long term use is. At this stage I certainly wouldn’t go back.
Wonderful information. You have convinced me to have one fitted to my XK120. However I am not sure whether I shall take on the job myself.
Thanks again
I think you will enjoy the reduction in effort it brings.
This year Ive driven the car to Monaco and back a distance of 1900+ miles. Some of the driving was over steep winding mountain roads. The power steering really helped. It just makes it easier without taking away the feel of the steering.
You might consider doing the installation yourself and then having it checked over by your garage?
I didnt consider it difficult, just fiddly in places!
Best of skill!
As you I enjoy the twiney roads of Europe. I live in France for the majority of the year consequently the beauty of the rural roads are very apparent. At present my car is having a new clutch engine mountings and a new stainless front pipe. Hopefully I shall start the installation of the EZ system in the new year.
Thanks again
@Ron_Smith Have you explained somewhere the details of your custom rack? I have the standard rack conversion with the common turning radius issues and it’s now many years old. Might be due for a replacement if there’s something I can get that fixes the issues. If not explained somewhere, could you give me some info? Thanks
I have published before, but not on a dedicated thread, so don’t know if even I could find it. However, it’s all custom, one-off. I could give you more details, but it requires ordering a custom rack from Unisteer (reasonable in price) and fabrication of bracketry. I have tracings of my brackets, but no schematics. My design comes from mocking up an extra front end with springs removed and finding the correct length and location of the rack empirically. The turning radius is somewhat reduced, but there is no bump steer or significant scrubbing. There is a set of uprated (poly) e-type rack bushing interposed, and dimpling of the steel oil pan was required, although might be minimized on a second iteration.
If a custom rack is something you feel you might have the skills and inclination for, I don’t mind sharing further details, but this is not a kit. I am in the process of going to 5" rims (DHL order arriving next week from MWS) and that may change my perspective some on the conversion. It’s a bit heavy when stopped now, and I switched back to my original 16" steering wheel from the 15" Moto-Lita that I was running. I’m thinking the 5" rims will be better.