Power steering weight - is it adjustable?

[SecretSquirrel]

Hi guys,
I was wondering if anyone knew if the power steering weight could be adjusted? My girlfriend moans that my VZ Adventra is heavy to steer around car parks. My explanation that it's a big heavy car doesn't cut it with her.

Does anyone know if it can be adjusted to be a little lighter? One of my mates seems to think he had his Ford Exploder adjusted to be a bit lighter.

Thanks very much,
Si

[VooDoo]

Yes, you can do it via caster angles. I have mine setup to be pretty light.

[VT LS1]

Get a stronger girlfriend, or give her some are exercises, somthing with a fist and her hand going up and down should do the trick......

[Avalanche]

Knock some of the castor off, hell even give it a bit of pos camber, should make it light as a feather, & screech as soon as u turn a little corner. Its always a trade off, good steering feel & turn in or fluffy steering crap turn in & a quiet Mrs. time for a barina.

[bpm]

or screw a calais or statto pressure limiting valve into the back of the steer pump.

[SecretSquirrel]

Thanks very much guys,
Pardon my ignorance, but is adjusting the castor a difficult job?

I must admit I'm less keen if it means the handling diminishes, for a two tonne car, you can flick around quite nicely, MUCH better than my old VX Exec that's for damn sure....

Thanks,
Si

[Avalanche]

The castor has to be done via a wheel alignment. maybe if u knock a degree or 2 off it might lighten up a bit, me personally i ask for as much castor as possible without catching the wheels on the front guard on full lock. It could be a bit of trial & error. It makes the steering heavier but it gives me more feel & better setup on turn in. Mind u when turning slow corners the car nearly stops.

[SecretSquirrel]

Hi guys,
I never got around to doing anything about this, but the girlfriend has fired up the nagging again.

To get the camber adjusted, do I just go into a Beaurepairs or similar and ask to have a degree or two of camber taken off and that's it?

Thanks,
Simon

[Avalanche]

Jeez, is she still whinging:bawl: tell her to stop turning the wheel from lock to lock with out moving before she destroys the rack or blows a line. It surley cant be that hard. move the car as u turn the wheel , it only basic. or give her a drive in an old 2 door falcon with no powers steer & a 10inch steering wheel.

[SecretSquirrel]

No need to convince me mate, but you know how they get.

She gets out of her tiny Suzuki Ignis which is so light if you lean against it it could fall over, into a 2 tonne, two meter wide station wagon and expects the steering to be similarly light. One of her mates has a Subaru Liberty which has really nice steering and I get the "Why can't it be like that" questions.

It's easier for me to 'fix' it than try and reason...

Si

[Avalanche]

i honestly dont think that removing a couple of degrees will make enough of a difference to her. Ask her if the car is moving when she is turning. i wouldnt be surprised if the avalanche has a couple of more degrees than your addy. my wife has no hassle at all in a carpark. yes it is heavier but in no way that makes it hard to drive. it sounds like the problem is going from a tiny car to a big one. subarus are small & their front geometry is different & they tend to understeer a lot more than the holden awd front end does. if you want to try then you will have to go to a decent wheel alignment place that does more than your 30$ toe & go. may also depend if the top of the struts can be moved around enough or at all. i cant say anymore on this, as i dont want to offend anyones driving capabilities.:hide:

[ssgirl2]

If she doesn't like it, she should be driving her own car and if she has to drive your decent car, she should be grateful and stop whinging. Bloody women!

SS :)

[GHZ28]

You can change the weight of the Adventra steering, but you will either have to change the rack (easiest way) or change the torsion bar within the hydraulic part of the rack (cheaper way) to one with either more or less resistance. (Can't remember which way it goes)

I did this with the rack in my 94 Camaro, after conversion it was changed to a typical American light steering rack, and as that felt completely wrong in a big V8 sports car, I asked how to fix it.

The suggestion from a steering expert was to seek out a Saab sports model rack from a wrecker....which cost $100 back in 1999.... and have the torsion bar from that put into my rack.

That was done by Fulcrum here in Brisbane, and the result just perfect.

Back then, I was told that the generic GM PS rack was just about standard across the range, so many parts were interchangeable, not sure how that applies now, but surely the Holden ones are at least interchangeable.

I do agree though that when going from say a small 4 cylinder car with PS, to the Adventra, the steering feels very heavy. I have also had a Holden service manager tell me that my PS was faulty because it felt so heavy, even he had forgotten how heavy they are compared to a normal Holden. But, in reality, the damping is there for a reason on the style of vehicle it is, but if used exclusively onroad, guess there would be no problem changing to lighter feel.

gh