Fitting power steering

[gallax]

Hello,
I had found, about a year ago, a site with some mods (most of them are on novaload too) but one - fitting an electrical power steering from citroen??? or peugeot??? I can't find it anywhere.
Can someone help me with some guidelines - I won't do it myself, I'll go to a service, but I trust "nova fans" more than today's specialists :)

Best regards,
Bogdan

[Ste L]

could be nova-land.com ??

[hendrix]

cant u just use a corsa power steering setup??

[gallax]

Thank you. On the nova-land site it is a refference to "nova power assisted steering" but the link it's not working.
The site I thing it was (from that link) www.vauxnova.co.uk...
Too bad... maybe somebody has saved the "howto"..

On the other hand, the corsa power steering it's an option, but the "direction box" (i'm not sure that's the name) its different, and the corsa is about 5-10 cm (or 2-4 inches) wider.

[Snowface]

why is it ur putting PAS on a Nova? they arn't heavy to steer. Or you got a Valver or something in there?

[Philsutton]

if i was to do it i would use all corsa parts as they are very nearly the same car, but i cant say ive looked into it properly. Also i wouldnt think it would be worth it on a nova

[gallax]

why is it ur putting PAS on a Nova? they arn't heavy to steer. Or you got a Valver or something in there?
"unfortunately", I've got a 1.5TD one with 175/65 R14 tyres. On the road it's very stable and "sporty", but it's a nightmare to put it in the parking. If the pressure in the tyres is a little bit lower, my wife can't turn the damn thing...

The cost for PAS was estimated (on the page that I can't seem to find) to about 600E... which is cheaper than a new car with PAS ;).

Maybe someone from this board has PAS on his nova, or has a copy of the "howto"...
Best regards!

[Voodoo]

Here you go:

Here's the lowdown on fitting PAS to a Nova. If you're prepared to cut into chassis rails, and fiddle about with belts to drive power steering pumps, then I've no doubt it would be possible to install a Corsa engine-driven PAS pump onto a Nova. Not only does that seem like hard work, it saps a good deal of engine power. There is an alternative - many modern cars are now fitted with electric power steering - notably Peugeot's 106, Citroen's Saxo, Renault's Clio, and possibly others I'm not yet aware of. Before I start, bear in mind that I fitted mine onto a rally car, and mounted the power steering pump INSIDE the car, underneath the co-drivers feet. For a road car, fitting it there might not suit you, particularly as it is quite a noisy little pump. Where you're going to find space for it under the bonnet of a Nova I don't know, but it can at least be mounted anyway up, so it might be feasible. The pump itself is cylindrical, about 12" long, and around 5" diameter. The parts you need are:

Electric power steering pump
From a Peugeot 106. I understand that the electric PAS pump on a Citroen Saxo is the same, I've looked under the bonnet and it appears identical, but don't come complaining to me if it isn't. Make sure you get the wiring harness with the pump, and ideally the mounting bracket, otherwise you'll have to make up your own bracketry.

A set of power steering fluid pipes
Any competent hydraulic hose supplier will make you these up to suit, and the lengths required will obviously depend on where you site the pump.

A power steering fluid reservoir
The Peugeot system is unusual in that there is only one outlet (i.e. no return flow pipe to the reservoir). If you buy from a scrapyard, try and get hold of the reservoir with its associated pipe when you buy the pump. Otherwise, you can use any reservoir you can find, but you'll have to close off the return pipe.

Power steering fluid
Make sure you get the right stuff for the Corsa rack - Castrol Dextron for example.

A Corsa power steering rack
I used a GSi one, Tigra ones are the same.

That's all the parts you require, the most important thing in fitting is that the steering arms on the Corsa rack are too long, so have to be shortened by about 1.5 inches each side, and re-threaded to take the track rod ends. The rack bolts up using the normal Nova bulkhead fixings, and you can use Nova or Corsa track rod ends. You will have to enlarge the hole in the bulkhead where the steering rack passes through quite significantly to accommodate the valve on the PAS rack, bit of a trial and error job this one. Once the hole is enlarged sufficiently, the Corsa rack will mate up with the standard Nova flexible coupling at the base of the steering column. You'll need a bigger rubber gasket to seal the hole you've now made, I've done mine with silicone sealant, probably the best solution would be to get the correct Corsa gasket. As I've said, you'll need to find a suitable home for the pump, and it needs substantial brackets to hold it in place, as it's running under high pressure. Provided you've got the wiring loom and relay that goes with the pump, it's a simple wiring job, just a 12V supply and an earth connection to wire in. I've wired mine so that the pump is running with the ignition switched on, but you might want to do it so that the pump only works when the engine is running. The pump is quite noisy, so if you end up mounting it inside the car you might have to insulate it. However, I haven't checked how hot it gets in running, so bear this in mind as otherwise it might be a fire hazard. Pipework is fairly straightfoward to install, how you run it will of course depend on where you put the pump. Basically you've got a feed pipe from the fluid reservoir to the pump, then a high pressure outlet from the pump to the bigger of the 2 unions on the rack, then a return pipe from the rack to the pump. I mounted the reservoir on mine in the area where the wiring loom passes throught the bulkhead on the passenger side. Fill the reservoir with fluid, and then you need to bleed the system of air. As it's an electric pump, you just need to switch the electrics on and off until the pump stops making any 'bubbling' type noises. Make sure you've got no fluid leaks anywhere, and that's the job done. Obviously you'll need to get the tracking re-set. The improvement this conversion makes is just amazing, it would be impossible for me to go back to the manual steering now. It took me a couple of days or so to do in total, but this was without knowing exactly what had to be done. Hopefully with the aid of this guide it could be achieved in a day.

[gallax]

Thank you! This was exactly what I needed.
Best regards,
Bogdan

[MARTIN KELSON]

I'am actually fitting electric power steering to my nova at the moment.
I'am useing late Corsa 'B' electric steering column. Only slight modding required, no major cutting etc required.
You need the column, ecu, and universal joint thing to attach column to nova rack all from the corsa. That universal joint parts brakes incase of collision so brake that so its in two halves, extend vertually as far as you can and re-weld to make it longer.
You will need to space the mounts at top down about 1"-1.5" (cant remember) and weld a bracket for the third mount in middle half way down by about 15mm.
The ecu will need modding by Harry Hockly to take the speed sensitive part away, costs about 200 quid.
Relatively easy to do so far.
Any questions stick us a mail.
Cheers