Why does every power steering thread die silently like this? C'mon! let's see this one through.

I saw a Chevette rack install on a kitcar site yesterday. The picture was tiny, and the writeup was bad, so I won't bother with the link. Apparently, all the guy had to do to install the rack was cut the mounting tabs off of the Fiero frame and move them outboard a bit. The Fiero outer tie rod ends just threaded right on to the Chevette inners (according to the writeup). The owner used a street rod style U-joint to connect the rack to the Fiero steering shaft, but I am sure you could either modify the Chevette rack to accept the Fiero U-joint, or make a hybrid joint by combining parts from both cars. He then had hoses made that had the proper ends on them and ran the pressure hose up the passenger side and the return hose down the driver's side. As far as a pump goes, he did not specify. Since he was running a 350 on a Lambo replica with a stretched chassis, I assume he used a factory chevy pump.

I plan on pursuing this route, and will look at the possibility of fabricating some sort of adapter bracket to avoid the cutting and welding. I asume this only applies to 84-87 models.

One more thing...Are the 88 racks power ready? Do they have fittings on them?

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"Its a Fiero thing... Heck, even I don't understand!"

Timothy E. Smith
1986 SE V6
1984 Coupe
1996 Ford Probe GT
1999 Chevrolet Silverado Z71
1975 Chevrolet ElCamino SS

[This message has been edited by tesmith66 (edited 09-06-2002).]

Exactly. I was thinking about an adaptor bracket myself. I'm in no position to do any of this right now, but next semester I plan on putting my machine shop class to good use . Hopefully it is possible to make a bracket. It'd make developing a kit just that much easier. (Rodney..?)

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^{The Black Beauty (85 GT) - Bustedato (86 SE, Parts car)
Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things
AOL IM: KSSouter
MSN IM: I_R_Sootah@hotmail.com}

quote Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua: Have we as men become so soft that we really need power steering on a small vehicle like a Fiero? Power steering will slow the car down. You will lose valuable horsepower and quite a bit of ET from both your 0-60 time and 1/4 mile times with power steering. Gentlemen wake up. We are men, strong powerful macho men. Think of those biceps and how much better they will look with manual steering. When I'm old in a wheelchair and have the nice blue parking sticker dangling from my rear view mirror, then I'll put power steering on my Fiero. Until then give me a hit of nitrous not power steering.

you are an idiot. every time i see your name on a post, i feel the hairs on my neck stand up. customizing our cars is a personal thing. i think it is the reason we all are here. you like what you like, and we like what we like. don't belittle us for wanting to do something different than you. just my $.02 worth..............

[This message has been edited by mrossum (edited 09-08-2002).]

Has everybody lost interest in this thread already? We may be close to a breaktrough.

It is possible to mount tie rods upside-down, but you have to re-taper the hole from the other side. I've seen it done on 4wd trucks with crossover steering. If someone who has P/S could take a look at how their tierods are mounted and whether they have stock fiero tierod ends, it would help us figure this out.

I like where this thread is going. I to may consider a power rack on my 88 GT if it's possible. I like AC, electric everything, and a 3800 s/c, auto, etc...

I don't believe there is a need to re-taper the steering knuckles. Just re-thread the inner tie rod end and use the Fiero outer tie rod end. Very easy to do without removing the knuckle and having it machined.

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"Its a Fiero thing... Heck, even I don't understand!"

Timothy E. Smith
1986 SE V6
1985 GT (parts car)
1984 Coupe
1996 Ford Probe GT
1999 Chevrolet Silverado Z71
1975 Chevrolet ElCamino SS

From the pictures attached on this thread, the installation of the Merkur rack seems pretty straight forward. If your doing a motor swap from a car that had power steer all you need to do is run a pressure and return line to the pump. I agree with the idea of just re-threading the Merkur tie-rods and using the Fiero tie-rod ends.

What hasn't been discussed is what needs to be done to a stock 2.8 (or 3.1, 3.4) or L4 to mount the pump. Are there any donors out there that you could just pull the brackes and pump and bolt on the Fiero motor? Does anyone have any insite to this potential setback?

Roy

Hey darkrain why not save the gas? the faster my fiero goes the easier it is to drive My car practically drives itself on the high way I use two fingers to drive! To change lanes I move the wheel this much
(++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++)I wouldent mind having PS in the city but I drag my car alot so I would rather have more hp than PS. My daily driver is a 80 Regal Sport Coupe 3.8 Turbo so i only drive the Fiero every few months.

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Stock 85 GT Bracket Racer
My record so far is 1W 1L
Fastest time 16.54

You know, this brings up an interesting point....

I was reading on Northstar Hi Perf mods the other day and the subject came up of underdrive pulleys. There was a link that sent you to some engine shop that was dyno'ing something (it was GM, but I don't think a N*). They were going to show just how much underdrive pulleys helped and they ran the engine with all power accessories (alt, PS pump probably bypassed but functioning, water pump, alternator) hooked up normally. Then to get another off the other side of the scale baseline, they just pulled the accesory drive belt and made a quick pull with NOTHING hooked up. Their logic, and I can't fault it, is that the underdrive pulley setup would probably be somewhere in between. Their results? They showed a whopping 2 hp increase. They couldn't believe it so they let the engine cool down and then made the pull again. The results were repeatable.

Now, with that in mind, if you're not actually TURNING the steering wheel at the time, just how much HP do you think that PS pump will use? Not very damn much...

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by red85gt: Hey darkrain why not save the gas? the faster my fiero goes the easier it is to drive My car practically drives itself on the high way I use two fingers to drive! To change lanes I move the wheel this much (++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++)I wouldent mind having PS in the city but I drag my car alot so I would rather have more hp than PS. My daily driver is a 80 Regal Sport Coupe 3.8 Turbo so i only drive the Fiero every few months.

Please people. This thread is for those of us who want power steering. If you don't want it, don't need it, or just want to call us names for wanting it- please don't post.

I'm a big guy (6'-2", 250 lbs) and have NO problem steering my Fiero manually, but I want power steering for better road manners and for my petite wife so she can enjoy the car, too.

Some of you think power steering us a useless add-on, well what about neon lights, DVD drives, big-ass subwoofers, video games, goofy shift knobs, pedal pads, etc.? We don't bash anyone for doing those things, so please don't bash us for doing this. We all appreciate the work and ingenuity that Fiero owners put into their cars, even though we don't all agree on one another's idea of "cool" or "useful".

Please let us keep this thread clean and useful. Let everyone enjoy the show.

Thanks for listening.

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"Its a Fiero thing... Heck, even I don't understand!"

Timothy E. Smith
1986 SE V6
1985 GT (parts car)
1984 Coupe
1996 Ford Probe GT
1999 Chevrolet Silverado Z71
1975 Chevrolet ElCamino SS

[This message has been edited by tesmith66 (edited 09-19-2002).]

quote Originally posted by mrfixit58: From the pictures attached on this thread, the installation of the Merkur rack seems pretty straight forward. If your doing a motor swap from a car that had power steer all you need to do is run a pressure and return line to the pump. I agree with the idea of just re-threading the Merkur tie-rods and using the Fiero tie-rod ends. What hasn't been discussed is what needs to be done to a stock 2.8 (or 3.1, 3.4) or L4 to mount the pump. Are there any donors out there that you could just pull the brackes and pump and bolt on the Fiero motor? Does anyone have any insite to this potential setback? Roy

Anyone? <BUMP>

I would take a look at Citations, S-10s, Berettas Camaros, and any other vehicle that used the Duke or 2.8. I know there is a way, but people just don't seem to want to give that info up. I am sure you won't find a bolt-on solution, but by looking at other vehicles, you can come up with something. I am getting ready for a V8 swap, so I will be making my own brackets as well.

Sorry I couldn't be any more help.

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"Its a Fiero thing... Heck, even I don't understand!"

Timothy E. Smith
1986 SE V6
1985 GT (parts car)
1984 Coupe
1996 Ford Probe GT
1999 Chevrolet Silverado Z71
1975 Chevrolet ElCamino SS

Don't really know off hand what bracket from which car might work the best for the V4/V6 Fieros. I already have the LT1 bracket and pump. Yey! ...But, if and when it comes to that, I think Rodney would have no problem in fabing something for us. After all, he has one already. Making a copy would be right up his alley. AMOF, I'd almost prefered it that way. I'm sure the fit would be perfect and very high quality as he is known for.

If he is following this thread, he might have input too.

quote Originally posted by mrfixit58: From the pictures attached on this thread, the installation of the Merkur rack seems pretty straight forward. If your doing a motor swap from a car that had power steer all you need to do is run a pressure and return line to the pump. I agree with the idea of just re-threading the Merkur tie-rods and using the Fiero tie-rod ends. What hasn't been discussed is what needs to be done to a stock 2.8 (or 3.1, 3.4) or L4 to mount the pump. Are there any donors out there that you could just pull the brackes and pump and bolt on the Fiero motor? Does anyone have any insite to this potential setback? Roy

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Winston Ojeda
88 Formula LT1
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
http://www.FieroLT1.com
Home of the Fiero LT1
wojeda@FieroLT1.com

I was just checking out the Jorgen Auto web site that was listed as the source for this Merkur rack. Out of curiosity I wanted to see what this outfit would charge for a Fiero steering rack, and I was SHOCKED to find that they list both a manual and a POWER steering rack for the 88 Fiero.

Someone with the time and the money to look into this should call them and ask them about this "power" rack for the 88 Fiero. And when you do, be sure to let the rest of us know what they say.

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Joe Furedy
'88 Formula (auto)
'88 Coupe (5-spd)

I called their 800 number a little too late.I left a message to call me back and what it was in reference to.I'll let you know if they call me and what they say.

Power steering pump on N* will fit. Plenty of room because of where it is mounted. I believe design one modifies the pump to use as an idler pulley so they can retain stock belt routeing. I have N* mounted in car and there appears to be no clearance problems. I will have to drive car for awhile to see if it needs power steering. If so I too will be looking for some info on how others have done it.

I saw the power steering rack on the Jorgen website several weeks ago. I not only was shocked, I was excited.

I called them and it is a mistake. They said if I had a Fiero power steering rack they would rebuild it for that price.

Design One (unless they changed it recently) doesn't use an idler pulley. They modify the PS pump and leave it in place. On my 88 I dimpled the shock tower a little bit to get a little more clearance for the pulley.

[This message has been edited by mikemck (edited 09-21-2002).]

Your local CarQuest store computer also lists a power steering rack for the '88 Fiero. If they try to order it, nobody in the world will have it. Somebody must have gotten really creative when they wrote that interchange guide.

Just curious though, has anyone compared a Chevette rack to the Fiero rack? After all, the pre-'88 is supposed to have Chevette front suspension. Power rack from Autozone is 136.99 + 90 core.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by mikemck: I saw the power steering rack on the Jorgen website several weeks ago. I not only was shocked, I was excited. I called them and it is a mistake. They said if I had a Fiero power steering rack they would rebuild it for that price. Design One (unless they changed it recently) doesn't use an idler pulley. They modify the PS pump and leave it in place. On my 88 I dimpled the shock tower a little bit to get a little more clearance for the pulley. [This message has been edited by mikemck (edited 09-21-2002).]

see my post at top of page for Chevette rack info...

Bump.

Come on now...

Here we go again! I have a brand new, already-modified Merkur rack in the back of my car right now. This is the same PS setup that I had on my '86GT (now living in southern Illinous with Adam), in an '87GT (now with Hugh in NJ) and will sometime this winter be on my '84. It is the same as Rodney's and whoever else had the Zimmer Quicksilver setup.

I refuse to (once again) argue the merits of power steering. If you like it, great. I do. If you don't like it, great. You're in luck, 'cuz that's the way Pontiac made our little cars.

Now, as for modifications. I will take some pictures of the rack tonight so y'all can see what they look like after modification. There are several significant changes which are necessary, plus the intermediate steering shaft of the car must be shortened, too.

After that, it's just a matter of the pump, pulley, hydraulics and brackets. I will also take pics of those things, although the pump and reservoir are just standard GM items anyway.

Anyone who has specific questions, I'll try to answer.

The merkur rack will work fine, but, you will need to cut it and then make it flat on 2 opposite sides to accomodate the GM coupling.

Also, you will need to replace the inner tie rods and everything beyond them from the Fiero unit to the Merkur unit. It is supposed to fit. Good luck!

Phil

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GTDude
OVER 25 years GM experience

Ever wonder why the fiero doesn't have 4 wheel steering? The rear setup looks like it could take a steering rack.
This would be a novelty.

Jim