1973 Mk1 Capri V8

Cant be a great deal of help with the power steering but ive always found the electric pumps really susceptible to voltage/current as they draw a fair bit, you really cant beat a proper belt driven pump

The electric motorised columns can give problems as well

If I understand it right ( which may not be the case), it pumps a constant volume of fluid.

And then there is no assist demand, it just circles through the system at low pressure.

When there is demand, it builds pressure by closing of a valve in the rack.


Going by the sound the pump makes, that makes sense.

When it is turned on it sounds like it has a constant pitch, and RPM drops slightly ( again going by sound ) when there is demand.


From what I can find, a belt driven pump works the same way

Except that the pumped volume rises with the engine RPM.

Thanks Matt, but going to Epas at this point would mean changing to a different rack & pinion.

And given the amount of time I spent to change the front end geometry to work with a stock T Bird rack for little to no bumpsteer & better rollcenter,

starting over with a new rack is going to be the absolutely last resort.


In fact, if it would come to that, I'd rip the entire front end out and start over with a double A Arm setup.

To get rid of the built in limitations of a McPherson setup at the same time.


So for now, I'm committed to getting some sort of hydraulic assist working.


I've spent some more time looking for You Tube vids, etc to see what other people have done.

And it seems the Volvo pump is fairly popular.

And if there are any complaints, its about it not assisting enough ( which would be a max press issue )


I'm happy with the amount of assist, I just cant live with the delay.


So my gut feeling about it is that I need to look at the R&P first.

Since it is a bone stock part, it shouldn't be too hard to find a new or rebuilt replacement, to swap it with the one I have.


I'll keep you all posted of any developments ( both good and bad... )

What about using one of the electric assist units that go into the steering column? Corsa C comes to mind. You can get controllers for them so you can fine tune how much assist you have depending on speed.

Oof... does it have a buildlog?

Yeah, on the RR site.

Same username, 1968 Fiat 500.

Sorry Sweet cheeks, but I am not that way inclined....🙄

I looked into a quick rack for my mk2 cortina, it had a capri clip, a modified pinion used to be available from Rally Design, I was also told the PAS rack was a quicker rack than the manual, I never confirmed this, but the plan was to strip a PAS rack and remove the seals , a bit of grease on the moving bits and use it like that.

Blimey , thats a radical change!!