UnderDrive Power Steering Pulley
August 25th, 2008 -
So round 3 of the Just Drift! Top Drift Battle series is next weekend, so I am spending some time this week getting the car ready to go. One modification that I have been planning to do for a while is slow down the power steering pump. This is a real simple mod and can be done cheap if you rent the tools and get the new pulley from the junkyard. The basic principle behind this modification is that the larger the diameter of a pulley, the slower it will turn the pump. The goal is to free up a bit of power and reduce the strain on the pump.
The pulley on the right is the stock 5.0 pulley, the larger pulley on the left comes from a 4 cylinder mustang. I did see an even larger pulley on the 6 cylinder mustangs, but figured I would give this one a try out at the track first, and depending on how things go maybe go to the even larger pulley later.
Use this tool to pull the old pulley off the car.
Use this tool to install the new pulley. Both the installer and puller can be picked up at Kragen for about $30 each.
Did you get David to do a test drive with it yet?
How does it feel?
Wouldn't that be a detriment? Id est: cause excessive heat to the line?
Sorry feel like being a Devil's Advocate.
I really hope that works out. That sure will save a lot of money by not having to buy the kit from MM.
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With the stock setup, the pump has a pressure bypass above a certain RPM. Using a larger pulley will simply increase the engine RPM at which that bypass starts working. This is because the pump is spinning slower for a given engine RPM.
Because I did not change the spring in the bypass valve, the actual amount of assist should remain the same. The only risk I am ruining, and the reason I did not go with the even larger pulley, is that at low RPM you do not have enough pump pressure. This of course is not an issue on the track as the car is always turning a decent RPM.
So far in street driving I have not been able to detect any negative effect, including in parking lots.
i hav the bigger v-6 pulley on my gr-40 and it does perfectly fine on the street and parking lot ....it dosnt hav any problems at all...wheres the event at this weekend?
The news on the larger pulley is good to hear. This weekend the event is on Sunday at the Walt James Oval Track out at Willow Springs.
So the pulley worked just fine, can't feel any difference behind the wheel, but it certainly puts a bit less stress on both the engine and the power steering system, so it's a plus.
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