Topic

Anyone know if there are any steering wheel options without air bags, A non airbag wheel off anything else that would fit ?

It's not for my TF, I'l be leaving the SRS system on that, but for the MGF EPAS column which im transplanting into my MGB project car.

Whilst the MGF stalk switches and plastic cowling blend in fine I'm tempted to find an alternative to a standard MGF /TF wheel that doesnt have the airbag centre section.

One of my Landies arrived with an Alegro wheel which was changed quite quickly for a Mountney & the correct spline adapter.
The Mountney had been hung up in the garage for years, it’s still on the Landie although it’s a bit small for a non power assisted heavyweight.
It seems that what we’re once called sports steering wheels are now “Drifting wheels”.
This modern parlance leaves me all at sea.
M

Had you though of doing an EPAS conversion on the Landie ?

Yes & I don’t think our steering column wouldn’t be man enough. There’s a fair area of aggressive tyre on the road & I doubt the motor would deliver the torque, nor the power supply/ ECU would deliver the current.
A direct acting hydraulic system, similar to a large tractor of an approximate vintage.
My pall owns a hydraulic company & we’ve sat down & worked out a parts list (I have the matching pump of a 200tdi) but I couldn’t work up the enthusiasm at the time.
And so a bright & inspired idea drifted away into the sunset over Blackpool, (I though I might dash the poetic muse on the hard concrete of the prom).
The trams are quite good though.
M

Just get an orbital unit from a tractor, hydraulic pump and a hydraulic ram😁 The great thing about this way is that you can do away with the steering box, drag links etc. might give the MOT man ahead scratching moment or two. Another option would’ve the system used by David Brown tractors pre Q cabs where the drag link operated a valve on the ram. Are you having two rams or having more turns of the steering wheel from the centre on one lock versus the other?
Chris, I think that the only option is to buy a hub adapter for a Rover 25/MG ZR. That will enable you to use various aftermarket steering wheels, they are about 60mm thick but a flat steering wheel will then have the rim in the correct position regarding the indicator/wiper stalks. It also has the nib to cancel the indicator’s built in.

You see you’re dangling a bloody carrot on another job!
Last time we were in Ireland we spent a day at one of the many country shows & I photographed every power assisted system used on agricultural vehicles known to man, in some instances measurements were taken.
I sketched up a system idea whilst there & even made an example of a spool valve & a shuttle valve on our return.
I inadvertently got myself involved in a ploughing competition; I bragged about the Ferguson TED20 I had at the time & the two furrow Newlands plough I’d just bough in Scotland.
They though I was an expert, bunged me on a Fergy 35 & pointed to my patch.
I shall make no more references to this.
Sorry I digressed a bit!
M

Were I to consider doing a power steering conversion to a landie, I would look at the potential of the epas system from a Ford Territory SUV, these were an Australian made Largish SUV.
Instead of the assistance being applied to the column, like our cars it is applied to the steering rack itself.
Now I haven’t even begun to think this through yet but I would imagine that it would be strong enough to do it.
I imagine that the biggest problem would be getting it connected to the steering column effectively and getting in to work with the landies suspension travel without it effecting the steering adversely.
It would take careful thought.

One design I toyed with was a double acting cylinder, one end fixed on the drag link, the other to the chassis. The amount of steering input being proportional to the opening of a shuttle valve, a small amount, allowing a small quality of fluid into one end of the cylinder; thus the greater the input the greater the assistance.
For manoeuvring where the input is large the valve opens more, reducing the sweat under the armpits; the usual grimace being transformed into a smug smile
Obviously steering left opens one end of the shuttle giving “up” assistance, turn right & the opposite end gives you the”down“ component.
Operating on the drag link reduces worries about suspension articulation & a shorter cylinder could be used as the throw wouldn’t be as significant.
There has been a significant passage of time between these initial thoughts & now, there is every possibility I could have failed to recollect some salient points, for the most part I think it all hangs together.
M

Airportable wrote:

One design I toyed with was a double acting cylinder, one end fixed on the drag link, the other to the chassis. The amount of steering input being proportional to the opening of a shuttle valve, a small amount, allowing a small quality of fluid into one end of the cylinder; thus the greater the input the greater the assistance.
For manoeuvring where the input is large the valve opens more, reducing the sweat under the armpits; the usual grimace being transformed into a smug smile
Obviously steering left opens one end of the shuttle giving “up” assistance, turn right & the opposite end gives you the”down“ component.
Operating on the drag link reduces worries about suspension articulation & a shorter cylinder could be used as the throw wouldn’t be as significant.
There has been a significant passage of time between these initial thoughts & now, there is every possibility I could have failed to recollect some salient points, for the most part I think it all hangs together.
M

That’s essentially the David Brown system, double acting ram bolted to the side of the tractor, the drag link operates the valve built into the end of the ram. Personally I like the orbital unit idea, no mechanical linkage between steering wheel and axle, downside is that there is very little feel.

I am not familiar with an orbital system, I might know it under a different name, but once one is married to an idea other suitors are sidelined. I will look it up & “think it into a design”. I’m not intending on pursuing these ideas into metalwork, it will be interesting to think through though.
I thank you for bracketing my pseudonym in with David Brown; a man who could think through a gearbox design whilst having his breakfast toast, only to have the design on paper before lunch.
I doubt I, or any of my endeavours will be thought of in the same sentence as Mr Browns other venture, Aston Martin.
M

Here is a David Brown orbital unit with a steering column attached. They are most often made by Danfoss and come as a bare unit without a column. You just connect a flow and return to the pump and two pipe to the steering ram. None of those nasty mechanical linkages. We were at Southward Classic car museum in New Zealand today. It had a DB2 replica chassis and a Lagonda. A week ago another museum and it had two Aston Martin’s. David Brown 1190 Steering Orbital Unit * £175 * Buy It Now