Power Steering for P-1800

I have a 1969 Volvo P-1800s and I wish to put power steering in it. It is my daily driver on all kinds of roads, mostly in the country, but a few visits to town each week. The lack of PS really bugs me when in town. Any suggestions? Thanks, Jim_70

Hey Jim- I'm actually restoring a 1966 1800 as a magazine project car now. There is a way to do it; A Dutch company has a electric upgrade but it requires a lot of fabrication to do make it work. This includes cutting the steering shaft.

My guys say not to do it. Before you even consider it you should probably make sure your problem is not component related.

What tires are you running now? How new are the components in your steering system? I'd start there.

The majority of 1800s that come to my shop for the first time have overtightened steering boxes, and often overtightened idler arm bushings. The steering box was never designed to have zero play, and it's a mistake to try to get all of it out.

Old ball joints will also cause hard steering, and are also a safety issue.

Besides the Dutch kit:

http://www.ezpowersteering.nl/index.php?p=3&m=Vm9sdm8=

Bearing in mind, installation of this kit could very easily mask problems mentioned by VClassics.

...the other "common" (no P/S conversion on an 1800 is really common) set-up is to use the P/S box and pump from a 164. This is about as close to bolt-on as you can get since the frame and B30 engine are similar, but will still require some tinkering and fabrication.

Anything else will require serious fabrication.

Never drove one, but I have driven the 122, which is very similar, and even in racing form with stocky tires we never felt the need for PS. I'd think twice about adding complexity to such a simple and elegant package. It's your car though, so don't let me convince you to continue something you hate. Make it whatever it needs to be for you to drive it!

Jim, you don't have a small steering wheel and big tires do you? Or a big V8? My Volvo PV544 steers very easily with stock steering wheel and tires. I have to agree with the guys to make sure there isn't something wrong before you undertake that conversion.

Lots of good points—all of my old Volvos (122 and 142) were easy to steer when they had the big stock steering wheels and less than 205mm wide tires. Throw some 225s on there and a more modern-style sport steering wheel and effort goes up dramatically.

If that's not the case with your car, the upper and lower ball joints, as well as tie-rods should be looked at.

Our 'nice" 1800ES has 195 tires with relatively new ball joints and the steering is rather heavy for our tastes, but we're weaklings used to light FWD cars w/ p/s. It's even worse since my right shoulder decided to stop working right about a month ago.

There is a fair amount of play in the steering box (more than I care for, actually) but I do need to check the idler arm again. I don't really recall how stiff it was when we had the front suspension apart for cleaning and painting.

Ian, I can recommend a great orthopedic surgeon for that shoulder!

Does he work for free? I've recently discovered my insurance coverage is not great... and I'm now looking at $600+ in med bills for that last batch of poking and sticking...

Not free; not even cheap, but my shoulders both work again without power steering. Trying to get myself "restored" while I still have good insurance to cover the bulk of it.

Is there any way of installing a non powered rack and pinion set up out of something else?

Cars like the 1800 should not need power steering unless the driver has a physical disability.

Wonder if an MGB rack would fit........

Yes, r&p has been done. One guy used a Volvo 240 rack, but it needed to be shortened. Part of the issue is the distance between the LCA pivot points. A shortened Miata rack (like Kieth describes in his locost build book) or a custom rack from Flaming River. A few years ago, Evil Genius Racing was talking about a Miata rack conversion for their 1800 track car, but I haven't heard anything about it in awhile.

In reply to jim_70: Jim, I just installed an electric power steering unit from EZpowersteering from Holland. It is really amazing what a difference. The power is adjustable. The kit is an exact fit. It took me 5 hours to install. The way it works is, the shaft has electronic measuring device measuring the torque. At stand still you need a lot of torque. the electric servo motor supplies the additional power needed to rotate the steering wheel. When driving there is little torque so there is little added power from the servo. you can adjust the power you want. No hydraulics, no difficult installation. You can do it yourself. There is not a lot of modification required at all. The servo goes under the dashboard hidden. You can steer with one finger. The website is www.ezpowersteering.nl

Any questions call me at 803-240-1384

Ben Muller

That's pretty neat.

(For those of us who don't speak or read Dutch, here's the web translated page in pseudo-english via babelfish.)