I Made My Corvair Easier to Steer...and Ruined It

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Since the last video, I put over a,000 miles on the car. It hasn't crashed and I haven't been arrested, so that's promising.

[00:00:14]I did pick up a few bugs along the way.

[00:00:16]Most are sorted, but the steering without a power adder is a bit much at low speeds. Sure, it's fine once the car is moving, but I don't go into a parking lot without a plan of execution.

[00:00:27]Otherwise, it turns into arm Again, to make this a more wife-friendly car to drive, I decided to install electric power assisted steering. She'll still find other reasons not to drive it, but at least it won't be the steering.

[00:00:44]First thing, I got to rrestle the steering column out of the car.

[00:00:53]I took the Flaming River column all apart just to see if I could do it.

[00:00:57]Since there are no online instructions or videos, I was lucky to get it apart without breaking too many things. So, here's the EPAS system, and it's going to have to go on this side, which is the left side. This is the shortest version I can get.

[00:01:15]So, it has to fit in here. The problem is wires. There's a big group of wires that come through here from the turn signals and whatnot.

[00:01:27]And this thing is going to go in there and cut the wires when this spins around with these screws in there. So, these screws need to be on this side of that hole. Now, I need to decide if I do cut this, I could cut this off clean, separate these two pieces, shorten the shaft, and I'm wondering if I can just take this these two bolts off. What happens when you take this off?

[00:01:51]So, you pull this out.

[00:01:54]That looks complicated.

[00:02:00]So, I think I should cut this one first.

[00:02:24]How this works is those white circular bands in there are sensors. They read the notched relector wheels that detect any misalignment twist. This info is sent to the control unit which signals the motor to assist with steering effort. So now the the steering unit is going to fit in this little space that I have. And I got to determine where to cut the steering column. Next, the next thing is to drill an access hole for the set screws right here that attach the shaft, the steering shaft.

[00:03:05]And it's going to be right there. It's actually that one, not that one.

[00:03:23]One thing I liked about this kit is that it came with all the adapters, so I didn't have to scratch build them.

[00:04:03]I had to trim the brake pedal bracket to clear the E-PASS unit.

[00:04:08]Also weld on a bracket for the E-PASS ECU.

[00:04:24]Voila.

[00:05:20]It's done. Maybe I should just hang it on the wall.

[00:05:54]This is the adjustment knob to determine how much power you want on the E-PASS.

[00:06:04]It took a while, but it's all in.

[00:06:14]Did you hear that click?

[00:06:17]Whoa. A lot easier, huh? Amazing.

[00:06:31]This is awesome. It steers almost effortlessly at 0 milesPH.

[00:06:45]Well, this isn't good. There is no return to center or RTC, at least at slow speeds.

[00:06:55]At higher speeds, it was the same problem. No RTC at all. Not having RTC makes the car feel squirly.

[00:07:06]I need to check the front caster accurately. And I wonder what Chris is making for dinner.

[00:07:12]All cars have positive caster built into the front wheels. The amount usually ranges between 3 and 7° depending on how much weight bias is on the front tires, whether the car has power steering or not, and what is its intended purpose.

[00:07:27]In short, less caster gives less RTC, but takes less effort to steer. And more caster gives better RTC, but takes more effort to steer at speed. I've measured caster many times in the past, but found the reading to be inaccurate and nebulous without the proper equipment.

[00:07:45]So, I splurged on ball bearing turntables and a caster adjustment fixture. The reading I came up with was a poultry 2.8 degrees. Not enough. It worked okay, barely, without EPAS, but the EPAS unit itself requires a certain amount of backfed force to override its resistance, and 2.8 degrees isn't enough. It really should be at least double that for my car. I drew up this chart to determine how far the tire would be pushed back in the wheel well.

[00:08:14]If the caster is extended to 6°, it will push it back 5/16 of an inch, which should still just barely fit without rubbing the back of the fender well. So, how do I add caster to the steering?

[00:08:27]Well, the easy way is to extend out the forward rod end on the upper A arm. This would move the ball joint rearward and increase caster. The problem is the maximum amount of adjustment doing this is about one degree and I need more than three. Plus, doing this also adds positive camber, which I don't want. So, to do this right, I need to construct new upper A arms. And what do you know?

[00:08:50]Here's a fixture I made to do just that.

[00:08:53]First, I mapped out where the stock A arms locate. I bought a new set of ball joint cups so that I wouldn't have to cannibalize the OG A arms, but my little ball joints just weren't man enough to fit. So, I ended up sacrificing the OG arms anyway.

[00:09:24]I drilled new holes in the fixture to offset the ball joints 5/8 of an inch both left and right directions. Then I used wire to mimic the bend angle of the new connecting tubes that will be bent.

[00:09:39]The tubing I used is 7/8 inch 156 wall DOM just like the original stuff.

[00:10:06]In order to tap 5/8 TPI threads, first run a 3764 reamer through it. Otherwise, it's going to be a struggle or worse, a broken tap.

[00:10:48]If you want the powder coat to stick better, especially in the corners, preheat the part first.

[00:11:06]You can see the difference in the ball joint location.

[00:11:11]This is one of the reasons for a fixture. The A arm has to be a snug fit, but if it's too tight, good luck getting it in there.

[00:11:25]The ball joint is listing to the right, which is the back of the car, which is correct.

[00:11:30]After checking the caster again, I came up with 6 and 12°. That's not what I aim for, but that's what I got. This stupid thing holds the steering wheel in place while you're making adjustments. While I had the credit card warmed up, I bought a tow gauge. You still have to string the car to align the steering wheel, though.

[00:11:49]Well, this is disappointing. The car still won't return to center, even with 6 1/2° of caster.

[00:11:58]And worse off yet, it kind of wanders around. It's like you got to keep fidgeting with it to keep it going straight.

[00:12:08]It's not much, but combined with no RTC, it makes for a squirly drive.

[00:12:15]Now what? This doesn't make any sense.

[00:12:21]Out.

[00:12:23]So I took the column all apart again to look into this slop business. E-PASS Performance assured me this is perfectly normal, and it probably is. After all, there needs to be some misalignment to tell the drive motor what to do, but I think I've had enough fun, and I'm going back to manual steering. So, I Frankenstein the column back together without EPASS.

[00:12:45]Well, well, well. Look how it snaps back to center. The elusive RTC I've been chasing is definitely there now.

[00:12:53]It feels great. It really does. I was afraid 6 and 12° of caster would be too much for manual steering and make it hard to turn, but it really feels good.

[00:13:12]Chris even drove it and there wasn't even one complaint about the car that is.

[00:13:19]So, here's my summary. Road handling is way more important than parking lot maneuvering. E-PASS performance is not a bad product. I just couldn't make it work for my situation. I believe column mounted EPASS is less sensitive to RTC than rack mounted EPASS because the ladder is after the steering reduction gear. So I may revisit this with a whole different system. Okay guys, thanks. See you in the next one.