Steering Rack Fixed

The Land Rover steering rack arrived from England and I have good news. It works!

I confirmed the width of the tie rods (the tie rod ends are clearly different) and guessed that the steering ratio and torque sensor would match up. I then swapped in the old brushless power steering motor since it’s programmed for the Tesla and tried it out. With the car on the lift, (no load) it feels normal so it looks like this was a success! I think it was fun to learn about the inside of the EPS system, but I’m also thankful I didn’t need to reassemble the old rack and pinion.

Cash saved: Almost $2500. Time spent: Many hours over the last month and a half. Was it worth it? Probably, who cares? It was fun. 🙂

btw: If you are looking for Model S parts like a -A 85 kWh battery, Drive unit and rear spring suspension, Charger, but not much in body parts from a 2012, let me know. There’s a salvage one I could get but it only has a few parts I need so it’s only going to be worthwhile to me if someone else can make use of the major parts.

Salvage Model S

31 thoughts on “Steering Rack Fixed

  1. Great news Otmar! The time spent and knowledge gained is worth it. What is the asking price of this Tesla wreck?

  2. Wonderful, just wonderful. Did hooking up the steering system remove any more of those annoying error codes?

    • Yes Gary, The rack and tie rods seem to be identical. If they measured differently I would have put in the parts from the Tesla rack but I was glad to avoid that.
      I hadn’t thought much about bump steer, but now that you mention it I guess it might be a problem if I decided to narrow the front track. I’ve been contemplating narrowing the front by about 30mm per side.

  3. Hi Otmar,

    If that wreck has a “B” Battery(last digit in part #), it’s one heck of a deal, and you will have no trouble unloading it. There is a guy in Florida looking for a B battery. If the car is on the East coast, it will make it even easier to sell the battery to him before it is shipped.

      • I checked, this car has -A battery. The -B battery can supercharge at up to 120kW, the -A seems to be limited to 90 kW. See TeslaMotorsClub forums for endless discussion on that subject. 🙂

  4. Hi Otmar,

    Sweet project! I started thinking about electric conversions for camper vans when rental prices here in San Francisco began to really take off, with plans to live in one fully. I stumbled onto your site back in December when I was doing some research. Now, I can’t wait to see new posts on the site, so yeah, just wanted to say it’s been inspiring to see the progress.

    Best,
    James

  5. Hi Otmar! Read about you in CurrentEvents and wanted more. I think I had something to do with starting you off on DC generators vs starter motors. For that I’m thankful. About three years ago I scrapped my stash of EV parts and bought a LEAF. It’s been fun, but I miss getting my hands dirty. I’ll be following your Strechla project. Good Luck
    Allen Wood

    • Hey Allen,
      Great to hear from you!
      Of course! You are the engineer mentioned in my first post who taught me how to turn an old generator into a motor for my wooden go-cart. I feel tremendously thankful to you for that and all the guidance you gave me! The other engineer was Frank down the street who was inspiring just for having an electric car in the 1970’s, though I don’t recall it running much. 🙂
      I still remember jumping up and grabbing my bicycle to chase that funny sounding go cart around the block, and then being really nervous approaching you. Your garage was a wonderful place with NiCad battery packs and an electric motorcycle that you were building for your commute to Lockheed? Or was it NASA?.
      I’m glad you’re enjoying your Leaf, and I understand about missing the project aspects. Maybe you can have fun watching how it works with LEAF Spy?
      http://www.mynissanleaf.com/wiki/index.php?title=Leaf_Battery_Application
      Have fun with it all!
      -Otmar

    • That’s an interesting one!
      Looks like a P85 with dual chargers and pretty well loaded.
      Damage estimate is listed at $92K, and yet it looks fine on top. The undercarriage must be in pretty poor shape. The battery costs half that much.
      I’m not signed up with Impact Auto, If someone sees what it sells for it would be an interesting data point.

  6. In what state will the wrack be? Is the battery in good condition? We may be interested. We’re in the Netherlands though.
    Best regards, Vincent, TaxiBlauw

  7. Well, if somebody decides to purchase this and part it out, I’m down for a drive unit if the price and conditions are right.

    • Hi Neal,
      Not a whole lot has happened in the last month, but I have shot a short video and I will try to add to that and publish an update next week.

      • Otmar is there any plan to study the console display, it’s computer and software? This would be a very interesting topic.

  8. Pulled up to a light behind an Evoque, realized it should be an electric with that name, but it was big and British, and who knows when they’ll move on from milk floats…

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