Club 80-90 Forums

Help!

My girlfriend says unless we can get power steering in our Syncro then it has to go.... I have to admit it has the heaviest steering of any vehicle I have ever driven but for her its almost imposable to park.

So what can I do? Did they ever come with power steering? Can we buy a kit? I emailed Syncro spares but did not really get much help, thye explained they had some parts but not others.

I any ideas would save the Syncro

left or right hand drive?

my syncro has light steering for a non ps van and thats with 255/65/16 tyres that are knackered.

have you checked your steering angles. too much caster will make the steering very heavy.

its a LHD.....

never checked the caster angles, how do you do that?

hi,

i'm just about to import a lhd syncro from mike plompen in belgium - www.busman.be. it comes without power steering so i'm having it added by cj at syncrospares.

when i last spoke to cj he had all of the parts available except the pipes, which i've also ordered from mike. my bus is being driven over friday morning with my pipes chucked in the back. its going to cj to have the ps installed. if you are REALLY QUICK you could check with mike if he has the appropriate pipes in stock, pay for them and arrange with us to have them transported over foc to devon in the back of my syncro. if then collecting from devon for you is inconvenient, i could bring them back to bristol next week, or leave them at cjs until you can get your van to him.

i've found it best to telephone people to do this kind of thing. the human touch is better than email!

cheers
Patrick.

how tight is the vc ? Have you tried driving prop off ?

even too low tyre pressures can add to steering effort; and always keeping the van moving while manouvering helps; but power steering helps most

What they said, and also, have you got the correct size steering wheel ? Perhaps a smaller one has been fitted by a PO.

Non-PAS steering really is pretty good on the T25 IMHO.

i have checked the tyre pressures but not dropped the prop -why would that help? I have noted that after a long run when you turn on full lock if feels as if the brakes are a little on. this passes if you leave it for 10mins to cool down. is this something to do with the VC?

did they ever come with power steering? what is exactly is needed and how much am I looking at paying?

thanks for the offer of bring stuff back but until I can understand what is needed and an idea of cost i will have to wait and see.

thanks for all the help so far

Yes they did come with power steering as an expensive option...

You dont need the original metal pipes that rust as you can get some quality hoses made up by local hydraulic hose co..

You would need the rack and the pump with mounting braket and prob a 3 groove crank pully unless you already have a 2.1 engine...
Or its also poss to use an electric power pump from a modern small car... this does need a good power supply though so a bit of wiring..

VC tight would make steering heavy as transmiting forces against natural flow.. how tight is it when on full lock on tarmac after a drive?

Quality tyres and correct pressures are critical and as said alignment can mess it up too..

sounds like your vc is on the tight side of worn out,right this is what you need,LHD rack £150-£225,uj and shaft that connects rack to steering gearbox £55,front to rear pipes £100,douible pulley n nut £25,pump n bracket n belt £75, resevoir and bracket £20,these are rough prices and yes syncros did come with power assisted steering as a option,cj.

thanks for the info.....it helped explain a few things

I will talk with my girlfriend about doing this. is there anyone that can fit this? the van runs between Surrey and Cornwall so anywhere along that route might work.

thanks for the help

Syncrospares..... as mentioned several times in this post

my syncro has light steering for a non ps van and thats with 255/65/16 tyres that are knackered.

I agree, and even on the Syncro, only when on full lock could it be described as heavy and TBH, one shouldn't be using the extremely tight lock unless abs. essential... and shouldn't expect to be able to do much without rocking it back and forth like Mark says...
I wouldn't think its the VC, even a good one is going to weight the steering at full lock, has to, by design. If you need full lock occasionally, then rock it a bit, otherwsie, don't turn it quite so tight, Landies don't, 'cos they can't!

A lot of this is having the right steering wheel, not a small one, and there is a modern trend to assume you should be able to steer vehicles by swinging the wheel about with one hand, rather than feeding it properly between TWO hands, which doesn't seem to be taught these days.

That said, power steering does offer one big benefit - damps the kick back when crossing ruts off-road, so if you have your fingers inside the wheel rim, they won't get sprained or broken... but then they shouldn't be there anyway.

The electric power steering pump is becoming more popular, and possibly a better solution for soemthing with the engine in the back and the steering at the front ! That's the option I'd be looking at...

I have had both non power steering and power steering variations, and found that you just get used whichever one you have, it's not something that I would particularily bother about; and when used to whichever variation you have, you dont think of it again.

Another soloution is to de-couple, which removes all the tight low speed problems that the syncro has, and has other advantages aswell, such as ease of maintainance, tyre choice. Just being able to jack up a wheel, and spin it makes such a difference to jobs like handbrake adjustment, doing up VC bolts , and the like. It's more expensive than power steering, but is possibly easier to fit.