In Japan it is popular to take the electric power steering motor/ecu from suzuki kei(mini) cars and weld it into the FD's shaft between the firewall and steering wheel. Getting it to works seems strait forward, one safety note is installation must not affect the collapsable nature of the piece to make sure is does not impale you in the event of a crash, that too is not hard if given consideration during planning.

It only provides a small boost, but just enough to make a difference on the track, low electrical demand, and very light.

Pic is just a for reference of the type not a specific example.

 

Man where was all this great info when I was replacing my steering rack 3 times in the last couple years? I had considered electric assist after driving a new Mazda3 that has an electric rack and was not turned off by the experience. I wonder if the 3 or MX5 racks would fit an FD without too much trouble.

 

I'm sure the RX-8 or ND electric power steering rack could be adapted, but without the stock ECU/programming the results will probably be like putting a 13B-REW in a RX-8 with a carb and expecting it to perform like an FD...

 

Does anyone have any experience using this setup? The last post is 7 years old. As mentioned by some, removing power steering pump, looping line, and removing some oil isn't that bad for normal driving but the effort increase curve ramps up very fast as the road turn radius decreases. Also as previously mentioned a larger tire width also increases steering effort. I'm affected by both of these "increased effort" situations. I really like not having the pump assembly/hoses in engine bay but reading about the loss of the more precise tire contact patch feel with the electric option, the plus $1K price, and requirement to send company a steering column to modify is swaying me to the "not choose" side of the fence currently. Putting the stock pump back on and having some custom routed lines made may be a wiser choice but still looking for input/opinions. Still considering the electric pump options but that is a topic for different threads.

 

I'm currently going through options. I bought an RX8 rack to see if it was a feasible swap. There seem to be a few issues I didn't see anywhere when I was researching this. The first one, the throw/travel seems to be less than the hydraulic rack (I still have to test to confirm this, just based on what I can see), this means that the steering knuckle will have to be modified to be able to turn the intended amount. You could probably do what a lot of drifters do and drill a new hole and shorten the arm and then beef it up. This seems to be the same case for the mustang rack.

The next issue is that the pivot point for the inner tie rod joint is wider than the "line" of where the pivot point of the upper and lower control arms are, so as far as I understand, this will cause bump steer and potentially binding.

What seems to be the easier option is to use something like the volvo electric hydraulic pump, so you still have a power steering pump, but it's powered by an electric motor rather than the serpentine belt. I've been avoiding that route because from what I've seen, it runs constantly and is loud, plus you still have power steering hydraulic lines and it takes up a decent amount of space.
I'm still not sure exactly what I'm going to go with, but I have a bit of time still since I'm going deep with the rebuild of my FD.

top to bottom, Mustang rack, rx8 rack, FD rack