Eagles International Forum

Has anyone tried electric hydraulic power assisted steering instead of power steering? I have a 1979 eagle with manual steering looking at replacing.

Welcome to our forum!

I need to clarify what you are asking. I suspect you are referring to the non-belt driven power steering systems on some modern cars. If that is the case, none of the parts would be robust enough for our size vehicles.

If there is an electice motor driven pump, with sufficient capacity (pressure and volume) I am not aware of it.

Quite a few folks have converted their Eagles to power steering using an engine mounted pump and steering box off of a donor bus.

Jim

The electric power steering has been available for HD trucks and buses for a couple of years now but without a ECM controlled engine and the multi plex wiring I don't know you could make it work.
There are 2 new Vanhools buses here with the new TRW ReAx system it's scary the power steering tied to the engine ECM and the electronic suspension systems I think I would go the old fashion route

Slight thread drift

Recently I have had a couple of off line questions about converting manual steering to power. We do not have any documentation of this conversion on our website, nor is there any decent documentation on other forums.

There are threads mentioning types of pumps and steering boxes but nothing that details an actual conversion in an Eagle?

For pumps, the best mention I can find is:

They Sheppard suggest using a Vickers VTM 42 pump with a pressure relief of 1750 PSI and a flow rate of 4.36 GPM at idle and 5.3GPM at fast Idle.

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For steering boxes there are mentions of both Sheppard and Ross boxes. I did not find any specific Sheppard model mentioned, but Paul Lawry made the following post on another forum:

I am not sure if my idea of installing this HFB70 will work or not.

I was told that Eagles used an HF64 with 1/4" free play in the steering gear. Which made the coach a little harder to handle. He suggested an HFB64, which has zero free play.

If anyone steps up with decent documentation, I will break it out into a separate thread.

Jim

I had contacted a place called American Powertrain that builds electric power steering units. Was told they have one for $1800.00 that would work. Supposed to have sensors that connect to existing steering column to react and energize pump when turning and manual going down road. Just didn't know if strong enough for load.

Thanks for input

If the $1800 is the complete conversion, that sounds like a good deal to me.

I don't know how they rate their system, but our front suspension is rated at 12K pounds (there was an option for 14K). If their system is rated for 12K (typical class 8 truck front axle, I would think it would work on the bus.

Jim

I just went to the American Powertrain website and the only thing I saw were kits for cars and not large trucks/buses. If that is the kit you are looking at, it is way too small for our Eagles.

I then did a general search for "truck electric power steering" and only saw discussions for pick-up type trucks. In that search, I did see that GM had a huge recall (700K trucks) with EPS (electric power steering).

Jim

Looks a little wimpy for a bus compared to the TRW electric system,for 1800 maybe worth a try if they will refund your money if it doesn't.Jim type in TRW ReAx it electric/hydraulic

Fun subject. Clifford mentioned TRW. Here is a link that discusses various electric systems: https://www.trwaftermarket.com/en/news/ ... -steering/

I remember that electronic PS was being discussed before the serpentine belts became standard. We (Gates) were concerned that it could eliminate one belt on the engine front end. That could amount to a reduction of OEM sales of up to 30%.

Jim