eletric power steering

[MRWRENCHMAN]

i hope there are some saturn or chevrolet techs out there. i want to install a cobalt or saturn electric power steering unit on my 56 belair sedan. i have a wiring schematic for the basic control unit. red wire to 12v sorce pink to ing. sorce and black to ground. there are two purple wires that go to ecu etc. from what i understand the control unit gets a speed signal from this circut to ajust the amount of power it needs to turn the wheels. my question is can these purple wires be jumped or left undone.will the power steering still work? i would think it would have a limp home mode (rom) in this unit.that would work with the purple wires unhooked. UNISTEER has a unit that looks to be a cobalt unit. anybody have a schematic for theirs. thanks for any help. Don

[D.S.]

Here is a file describing how the system works, it's for a 2006, if I new what year you were looking at I might be able to get better info...

http://www.box.net/shared/y2lezmkzht

[dayj1]

Originally Posted by MRWRENCHMAN

i hope there are some saturn or chevrolet techs out there. i want to install a cobalt or saturn electric power steering unit on my 56 belair sedan. i have a wiring schematic for the basic control unit. red wire to 12v sorce pink to ing. sorce and black to ground. there are two purple wires that go to ecu etc. from what i understand the control unit gets a speed signal from this circut to ajust the amount of power it needs to turn the wheels. my question is can these purple wires be jumped or left undone.will the power steering still work? i would think it would have a limp home mode (rom) in this unit.that would work with the purple wires unhooked. flaming river has a unit that looks to be a cobalt unit. anybody have a schematic for theirs. thanks for any help. Don

I had never even heard of electrical power steering before reading your post. But the idea sounded pretty cool, so I read a few articles online. Here's one that explains quite a bit about how such a system works:

http://www.automotivedesignline.com/howto/165600237

It looks like a microprocessor is required to vary the power assist based on input torque from the steering wheel and vehicle speed. Is the torque sensor incorporated in the Cobalt unit or is it something separate in the steering column? The speed sensor shouldn't be to hard to account for depending on what type of transmission you're running. The computer that controls it all looks like the big hurdle to overcome.

Keep us updated on what you find out. It sounds like a cool project. Good luck!

[MRWRENCHMAN]

thanks for the imfo guys . i think the colalt system would be the easy one to install. i'am almost sure it would fit between the stock steering box and the firewall.you would have to shorten the stock column or go with and aftermarket one.cut the shaft at the box end and double D the shaft with a rag joint and have a floorshift. it would not go under the dash like the colbalt because of the brake and clutch petals.shure would be nice to get rid of the pump and hoses of other systems, and clean up the under hood look. thanks again Don

[Jalapeno]

Flaing River has offered an electric powwer steering system for a couple years. Here's a link:

http://www.flamingriver.com/index.cf...cat/cat210.htm

You may have to search some more on their site for the specific system for a trifive.

BTW, very pricey at $6K:eek: