This week I did as I said and attempted to put the power steering in.
First job was upgrading my alternator to generate enough power for the power steering motor - this is at 50 amps. So my thoughts were that my 40amp alt isn't going to cut the mustard.
At the moment my wiring is very crude and my thoughts are that it will get redone with a new loom at a later stage.
There are 4 wires that went to my old alternator:
White with red stripe. This goes all the way to the fusebox in the centre console. This is the charging wire, so goes on the insulated bolt/nut.
Black. This is the earth. I can see on the FSM that it goes straight to the old voltage regulator but the alternator is also generally earthed via its bolts to the engine etc.
Yellow. Also goes to the old voltage regulator. This is the wire that, along with the plug-in you should buy when going with an upgraded alternator, essentially switches the engine off from the ignition switch. Without this key component the engine will continue to run
it is also not used on the new alternator.
White with black. This is the switched 12 volt wire that excites the alternator or, with an internal regulator, enables it.
For my alternator, there is a plug that in the above photo, you can see there is a green wire and a red wire. The green links to the yellow for excitation and the red I've through-crimped and wired in to the battery.
This particular connection is the sense wire that senses the voltage at the battery. I'm concerned that the seller of the alternator (Zcardepot) instructed to attach this red wire to the insulated generating post of the alternator. Which would pick up a higher voltage, fooling the internal voltage regulator in to thinking the battery is charged and therefore, not charging the battery.
(I will point out that there is an argument as to the resistance of the cable used would negate the above mentioned scenario)
I wasn't satisfied with the size of the white with red stripe cable, so I also added a larger gauge red cable, from the alternator to the starting motor (as it was closer than my battery and looked tidier).
New battery - I would have liked a Bosch platinum S5 or possibly S6. But there is none available on the market at the moment. I took advice and decided upon this Yuasa model. This has 720CCA which is a good amount for this car as it has electronic ignition. I did research and found that anywhere between 600 and 800 is a good amount for my needs.
I've also snapped my positive terminal. I have replacements but, no one has the proper battery cables off the shelf so, I will research and buy the correct length and gauge.
The Battery salesman also gifted me with some wisdom:
Constantly keeping your battery on trickle charge is a bad habit. This leads to actually weakening the battery over time. The correct method, would be to leave the battery for around 10 days, with a day of trickle charging followed by another 10 days not charging. Of course keeping the battery disconnected is a better method as well as a battery isolator.
Also, anytime the battery goes below 12 volts of charge, the battery acid breaks down, creating a build up of sulfur that eats away at the plates. But I think that's a well known problem that's always been associated with battery care.
With both battery and alternator prepared, I made a start on the power steering. As a DIY kind of guy with moderate mechanical skills let me just say that this has been the single most hardest thing I've had to do with the car so far.
Luckily the parts are straight forward to deduce what goes where.
This is the part I struggled most with: the coupler bracket that attaches to the steering rod(?) splines. I soaked it overnight in penetrating oil to help loosen the part and gave it a few choice words then a wack from a hammer and it came off.
So the rest is just attaching to the steering rod and mounting the motor in place via a straight swap. For me this was quite difficult as, there were more splines, which requires a mountain of effort to attach together, along with grub screws holding them in position.
In terms of engineering, there's a lot more moving parts, 2 instead of 1 universal joint which, I think makes it better if involved in a head-on collision, this would collapse should the worst happen if my research is correct.
This was a work-in-progress photo where I had given up one evening. This is now fully mounted and the ignition barrel, headlight switch and indicator stalk with the clamshell all replaced. The motor is tucked up neatly to the left and does not hinder the pedal box levers.
Finally I've yet to wire in the control box for it needs to be mounted to the firewall and I'd like a fresh head before I do this. More photos and a video to follow!
[edited to correct alternator wiring, per later
@Rob Gaskin post]