Quadrasteer?

I wonder what is involved with reverse-engineering the module to duplicate its functions with a more commonly available PLC?  It seem like there will be a market for this sort of thing in the future as more and more cars have these random control modules that become NLA.  

Mine still works. With quadrasteer you also get a Dana 60. I would buy one again with out question. Yes the part I was looking for is nla but even so if it brakes you just have a regular truck so enjoy it. It kind of takes the truckness out of the truck.  I am sold on it and will be getting it on my next truck.  

One taught I had was to come up with a replacement for the stock unit that had a simple three way switch for left right and center. 99.9 percent of the time you want it when in tight spaces. A toggle to manually control it would be the next best thing to the automated stock system. 

I wondered if a stearing wheel sensor could be somehow retrofitted 

I remember Deans thread now! Yea my thought is that I have a tough rear axle even if the system breaks. I’m surprised nobody’s come up with a fix for the NLA part yet. I get aftermarket people won’t since it’s so low volume, but I wish there was some EE hobbyist that did. Makes me wish I went to school for electrical engineering so I could understand the breakdown of the circuits better. 

So, based of Dean's comments that it reverts back to "straight" but he likes it better, maybe the right tactic is to use the concept of the "broken" QS and the dashboard light associated with it as a negotiating tactic to drive down the price of a QS equipped truck.  Net result of lower price than similar non-QS truck but still have some nice features.  

Anything that was equipped with QS was pretty darn loaded with other options too.  Might be able to get a Lux Truck for more basic truck price.  

This seems like a great application for a RaspberryPi type setup in a weathertight box...assuming you could decode the info in/out required.

Well looks like I'll be Quadrasteer shopping this weekend... 

dean1484 said:

but even so if it brakes you just have a regular truck so enjoy it. It kind of takes the truckness out of the truck.  

 This is correct. The racks have a stack of belleville washers on the ends that force the wheels straight in an error state.

I bought a 2004 QS Suburban last summer.  It's pretty well loaded for a 2004 and it rides much more stiffly (which I like) than my old '99.  The 4WS works great when I first start it up but turns itself off (reverts to 2WS) after some amount of time (although not always).  I suspect a shakey ground.  I paid $6,250 for it and have put a few dollars into it sorting out some of the gremlins that old GMs seem to develop.  My big motivation was the 4L80 trans instead of the 1/2 tons 4L60.  Expect poor fuel economy, 13 hwy is about it.  Tows good, Miata on an open trailer is essentially not even there.

If you can find a working module, you could likely take it to a computer geek and have him/her extract the code that could be used to replicate it. I would even try taking in a broken one, because the damage would likely be to a peripheral item like a relay and the code would still reside on a chip.