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Electric Power Steering Information Compiled


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One question regarding the commercial units:

 

The ZPS is $1,550.00 and the Silvermine is $900.00...that's quite a difference in price for ostensibly the same item.  

 

The ZPS site alludes to "knockoff" systems that "...utilize an inferior motor setup."

 

Any thoughts? 

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Been doing some research into this. Found some interesting info.

 

The "inferior motor setup" seems to indeed be employed by silvermine. If you look up the EZsteer setup you can see that is what is integrated in their unit. 

 

I want to say ZPS uses a european make power steering setup, off of a puegot or something, the control box and such look quite similar to the unit on mine, maybe the same manufacturer.

 

Yes a power steering unit designed for an ATV is inferior to one designed to assist with a car, but.....you really don't need all that much assist in a Z. Mine is built, pretty much ready to install with the creation of a single bracket, and in all honesty I haven't even remembered other than when I am parking that I don't have it.

 

So, whether the unit being inferior being a deal breaker is really is a bit of a toss up. As a poor analogy, is a hand grenade inferior to a nuke? Yes, but if you are sitting in a small room with either one armed you are still going to be similarly concerned.

 

Price wise the silvermine unit makes financial sense, it is in the realm of understandable from my experience. I spent $300 on parts, time for labor, wiring, fabrication, welding, and top it off with a new motor I can see it costing what they are asking for. Looks like the EZ steer kits start at $600 so that there is a pretty big chunk of the cost already.

 

I didn't realize, but this is the first time I have seen pictures of the ZPS setup. My recollection was it was kept under wraps for a while? It looks really quite similar to the setup socorob ended up with and that I copied from him. Given that I would say the ZPS system seems to be on the high end for its construction. They cut out a lot of the fabrication we did by using a pillowball joint (I actually had the same thought, but wasn't sure how much support was needed and two larger bearings spaced apart is quite a bit more in the real of support and alignment), and what looks to be a machined piece for the adaption to the stock Z column. The control unit even looks exactly like the bruno controller. I have about $300 in parts invested in my setup, I can understand with some new parts it may be higher, but I'm not finding the $1200 differential there. Maybe if you included the price of the column that has to be sacrificed, but they are only asking $50 for the core charge. Greg is pretty active maybe he can chime in.

 

I guess it depends on what you are looking for. I couldn't bring myself to justify even the more affordable silvermine option and I enjoy making things so the fabrication route was really the choice for me. Whether the "inferior" setup found in the silvermine unit will matter is unknown. 

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There's a ChampCar team that runs the Silver Mine unit in their car, and it has held up under race conditions so far.

 

The EZ-steer kits are made to go onto ATVs with gross weight ratings of up to 3000lbs, and most Zs don't weight more than that. 

Edited by calZ
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^That is what I imagined. The only time it would really be useful is at tremendously low speeds, and even at that speed a little bit of assist would be a world of difference. 

 

Ben had a setup in his car that seemed even simpler and easier to make. If you don't need collapsible features i.e. track car, you can just use most of the saturn stuff and use a steering wheel adapter to get a sportier wheel. That is what my second setup is destined for more or less. Cutting and welding the stock datsun lower steering shaft to the saturn unit and using the saturn unit for pretty much everything else and either going to a sparco style quick release hub or something of that nature and using a rod end to keep it in alignment.

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19 hours ago, seattlejester said:

 As a poor analogy, is a hand grenade inferior to a nuke? Yes, but if you are sitting in a small room with either one armed you are still going to be similarly concerned.

 

 

😂 Love this. 

 

Great info, thanks very much for the insight. 

Edited by boosted300
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  • 9 months later...

To add to this thread,

I picked up an 08 Prius motor. 
One really nice thing about the Prius vs Vue motor is that the motor orientation is opposite, and the bracketry is minimal. In the Prius the computer is remotely mounted. 
I think locating in the Z will be much much easier as it will angle up and to the right towards the radio. Lots of room above the gas pedal. 
Will document the swap here. pd $150cdn for motor and Ecu and all wiring I wanted from the Prius (got lots of the thick white 8 gauge).

 

169EE6FD-4056-49F6-81CD-D267FBA1CD51.jpeg

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