Suzuki 4WD Club of Victoria

My next project on my 1985 Holden Drover ute is power steering,

looking at sourcing all the parts I will need, I'm in QLD at the moment and have a bit of time to check out some wreckers,

So I can use the BenT kit for a Vitara steering box or is the Jimny steering box a better option?

Are there any common problems when sourcing all the parts I will need?,


From what I understand with the Vitara option I will need a:

power steering box with pitman arm,
power steering pump and bracket,
hoses/reservoir

which model/engine/year Vitara can I get my parts from?

and from which year onwards do the Sierras have collapsible steering shafts?

also will I need to alter my alternator?

The pulley from a 1600 seems straight forward enough,

Cheers

Sorry for the delay in replying Dougie.


Jimmy is the easier job - obviously you don't need the wedge from BenT but radiator clearance is easier - it's an easier fit. The Pitman arm also has more drop, closer to the stock Sierra pitman arm. The Vitara pitman arm is much flatter which increases the angle on the drag link.

You are on track with the parts required. Vitaras and Jimny power steering pumps both run Polyvee belts so you will need to swap the crank pulley, water pump pulley and alternator pulley to polyvee too. This doesn't in itself require the alternator to be changed, just the pulley, but it IS a good opportunity to swap to an EF/EL 100A/110A alternator which is an excellent and relatively cheap upgrade. A way to avoid this is to purchase a power steer adapter pulley from Lowrange offroad, which has a polyvee belt for the power steering and a V belt for the water pump and alternator, but to be honest, the cost of the aftermarket pulley would probably be similar to the whole EF/EL swap.

Also consider that the high pressure hose won't be the right length. It is possible to bend the hard line to make it work but Vitara hose is too long by some margin, I don't have experience with the Jimny hose.


Any power steering Vitara up to 98 is a source for the box, not Grand Vitara, these are rack and pinion. I'd suggest finding the pump, brackets from a G16B engined car. ( I don't know if the pump is different on the 2.0 cars)

I think all WT Sierras (so 1988-on) have collapsable shafts. By 1991 they definitely did.

Cheers Steve for all this info, definitely pointed me in the right direction. Few things I hadn’t considered too, I think I will be on the hunt for a while, these parts seem to be getting hard to source, cheers again