saturn Vue Power Steering - another perspective

[Brave Salmon]

My compliments to CDUB for the job of installing the Vue power steering motor on his 33. It looks to fit will and will probably serve him very well in the future. I looked at this solution very carefully and decided to give it a try. Ordered up a motor from the local junk yard ($145) and the controller from Portugal for another $80. So far I am into it for a total of $225, not bad huh? Now comes the fun part. I am running a 351w motor and first thought was to mount it right where the FFR motor (Unisteer?) goes. No dice, the unit is way to big to fit between the frame rails and the motor mount as well as hitting the oil filter. OK, let's try it on the shaft from the firewall to the frame brace. Yes, it does fit but with some conditions. The shaft of the unit will need to be modified to adapt to the 3/4 DD shafts and u-joints. I went everywhere I could find to try and get u-joints or couplers to mate the Vue box to 3/4 DD. These do not exist so I am sure I will have to have the Vue shaft either ground down to something more standard like 9/16 or whatever to use a standard coupler or have both ends cut off the Vue shaft and 3/4 DD welded directly to that shaft. I am sure a competent shop could accomplish this last bit with very little concern. OK, so we have the Vue shaft now with 3/4DD shafts at both ends. It's a simple matter to cut the shafts to length to position the motor somewhere along the original route of the shaft and cut it to length, hook it up to the existing joints and move on. Moving on means designing and building a bracket of some sorts to hang this Vue unit on to so it does not spin or bounce around. Looking at the area around where the motor will hang, you can see there is nothing but two round frame rails to attach a bracket to mount this unit. Say you find someone much smarter than me to design a bracket and get it welded in place to accept the motor, you then have the basics of a functional power steering unit for your '33 hot rod. Oh, by the way, you'll probably find that the motor is to large to sit inside the tube frame rails and will need to hang outside near the side cover if you are running them.

The ECU portion of the unit is easily removable per the instructions that come from Bruno in Portugal. Only hard part is cutting and lengthening 4 24ga. wires that attach the ECU to the motor feedback circuits. If you're not skilled in small wire work, get someone who is to help you. The rest of the ECU relocation is a simple follow the instructions project that should cause much concern. In conclusion, had I should have looked closer at this project. Sure, as I note above, it can be done and I may go ahead and try it just for giggles since my only loss is a new DD shaft if it blows up. I may seek help on a bracket design to mount it but I am not real encouraged that this can be done without major surgery to the frame which I will not do.

If anyone is interested, I will gladly post pictures of the VUE unit and how it all goes together. I believe that you really need to give this solution a very serious look before you make this decision. I would not even try this unless you plan on running side covers due to the ugly nature of the motor hanging out there in space.

Good luck!
tom

[erlihemi]

Thanks for the input Tom. This is helpful.

[Cobraphx]

Before you give up on connecting the DD shaft to the Vue shaft, take a look at Woodward Steering They were able to put together a universal to connect the FFR DoubleD shaft to my Mazda RX-8 steering rack. I like their joints much better than the ones from Flaming River. And they will put any tow of thier halves together for you. I would be surprised if they don't have something that fits.

-Matt

[Brave Salmon]

Before you give up on connecting the DD shaft to the Vue shaft, take a look at Woodward Steering They were able to put together a universal to connect the FFR DoubleD shaft to my Mazda RX-8 steering rack. I like their joints much better than the ones from Flaming River. And they will put any tow of thier halves together for you. I would be surprised if they don't have something that fits.

-Matt

Wow, Matt! This is a fabulous resource for all of us. I will get with them and see if the can help. Thanks a bunch..
tom