Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

the brain aka computer or control module call it what you will sits way up high under the dash pad

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

since I did the pull myself I decided to take my time and not cut it all out with a machete

this is one of it's 17 ground connectors (the car itself has 863 grounds)

this bird's nest is all under the dash above and to the left of the steering wheel

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

taking one for the team

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I honestly pride myself on this pull, I pulled all home runs, from the plugs on the steering column computer all the way to the fuse box in the engine bay, I even yanked the relay sub block, which is a siamese with the electric radiator relay on the other side, BONUS! so I pulled those wires to the plug in the rad fan as well (for future use)

more grounds

pic below shows where the fat white ground wire disappears into the fuse box

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

three short sunny hours and $62 bucks later, we had ourselves an electric power assist steering column, with the controller, and the wire harness

Fun Fact: they wanted additional $65 for the sleeping bag, so I yanked it at the cash register in their lobby, ha ha (not on my watch)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

although I treated myself to Jimobys tacos on the way home, shout out if you have been, it's a Cali think I think needless to say I was pooped, but I was determined to give her one try at fitting into Dusty

first the fugly steering wheel had to come off, it's a two bolt puller one beer job

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Confession Time: I hate Priuses, they are the slowest vehicles on the planet, and if you are stuck behind one with an Uber sticker forget about it, you are going to be late, and God forbid they have both Lift and Uber, might as well pull over and wait it out, but, but, but...

the engineering is brilliant, honestly, the Lexus engineers should really cross the aisle and chat with the Toyota gals, cause they know how to build a fuse block and steering column/wheel, this thing comes apart like magic


this weight on the steering wheel explains why they only get 7 miles of range per battery pack


and one track ready Prius steering wheel

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

wait a minute, this 2008 Toyota steering column is NOT a direct bolt on to my 1969/71 Chevy GMC ??? may I speak to a supervisor please

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I continue to be impressed and entertained! You've put so much work into this truck with all of the fabrication, adaptation, and testing. Kind of like that Johnny Cash song, this will be a Chevy/Lexus/Toyota (other makes TBD). I look forward to hearing your combination of those names when it's all said and done.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

omg, I literally have that song in the back of my head every time I head out into the garage, and I just posted on the OpenInverter.org a question of what I should call this thing, as Damien Maguire called his BMW a Bexus, and this other gentlemen called his MG a Mexus, so I am perplexed, is it a Chevy so call it a Cexus or is it a GMC so a Gexus


Lyrics for the Young Padawans

One Piece at a Time
Song by Johnny Cash

Well, I left Kentucky back in '49
An' went to Detroit workin' on a 'sembly line
The first year they had me puttin' wheels on Cadillacs
Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by
And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry
'Cause I always wanted me one that was long and black

One day I devised myself a plan
That should be the envy of most any man
I'd sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand
Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired
But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired
I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand

I'd get it one piece at a time and it wouldn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style, I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is a round

So the very next day when I punched in
With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends
I left that day with a lunch box full of gears
I've never considered myself a thief
But GM wouldn't miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out over several years

The first day I got me a fuel pump
And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk
Then I got me a transmission and all of the chrome
The little things I could get in my big lunchbox
Like nuts, an' bolts, and all four shocks
But the big stuff we snuck out in my buddy's mobile home

Now, up to now my plan went all right
'Til we tried to put it all together one night
And that's when we noticed that something was definitely wrong
The transmission was a '53 and the motor turned out to be a '73
And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone

So we drilled it out so that it would fit
And with a little bit of help with an adapter kit
We had that engine runnin' just like a song
Now the headlight' was another sight
We had two on the left and one on the right
But when we pulled out the switch all three of 'em come on

The back end looked kinda funny too
But we put it together and when we got through
Well, that's when we noticed that we only had one tail-fin
About that time my wife walked out
And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts
But she opened the door and said, "Honey, take me for a spin"

So we drove up town just to get the tags
And I headed her right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around
But up there at the court house they didn't laugh
'Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds

I got it one piece at a time and it didn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style, I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is around

Uh yow, Red Ryder, this is the cotton mouth
In the Psycho-Billy Cadillac come on, huh, this is the cotton mouth
And negatory on the cost of this mow-chine there Red Ryder
You might say I went right up to the factory
And picked it up, it's cheaper that way
Uh, what model is it?

Well, it's a '49, '50, '51, '52, '53, '54, '55, '56
'57, '58' 59' automobile
It's a '60, '61, '62, '63, '64, '65, '66, '67
'68, '69, '70 automobile

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Yeah I've got that one on my favorites play list. I guess you'll have to call it The Cottonmouth now.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Chevrolexus.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

well looks like reclocking is pretty easy, just two bolts

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

so I bolted up the manual steering box (yes manual, as they come with a more forgiving 6.5 end to end turn ratio than the automagical ones)

the reason I swapped out my power steering box for this manual is because this Prius jobbie is not technically power steering as the force is applied above the box, so it's essentially power assist if you will

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I happened to come across this: Toyota Prius Power Steering Works in Almost Any Project Car


and this video Add Power Steering To Any Car

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

well looks like reclocking is pretty easy, just two bolts

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

then it was time to give her a little shave

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

45,678 views (do you see it?)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

OMG is that weight lead? If it is I'm heading out to P A P to get one. I need to make some bullets.

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

LoL, I recon so, lemme guess once word gets out there's going to be a Prius steering wheel shortage

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

and another

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Operation Kojak complete

[holler back if you get the reference]

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

after that, things escalated pretty quickly and more carnage ensued

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

I was spit ballin' using everything at my disposal for ideas (not all of them good ones)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

finally settling on making a plate to re clock the pivot bracket (not for tilt per say but to help get the angle during mounting) something to hang it up with sorta speak

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

just trying to see if I can install this thing in more steps than Rotbox Metalworks


DIY Electric Power Steering Upgrade! {Under £100}

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Captain's Log

it has been 857 Earth days since we landed on planet EPAS, and what started out as a standard recon mission has lets just say escalated

the threaded rod is for photo opp only

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

we aint really gonna run that fugly PRIUS steering wheel, it's just there as a prop

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

so let's adopt this to that, as I am sure Grant makes an adapter for their Hot Rod wheels to a Prius for sure, but going that route would be cheating

I know right?! four spokes, chics luv four spokes!

oh that's cute, Grant is using metric hexeseseses so my 'merican ones don't work, great!

so how do we adopt this to that?

hmmmm, two holes align...

time for the plasma cutter

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

like a surgeon

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

ah, it's temporary

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

and the problems kept on coming

my rod was too short [where have I heard that before?]

this is just a mock up

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

one of the challenges I'm facing with the steering in a truck is the sheer length of the steering shafts, think of the Prius as a pug and my truck as a Borzoi wolfhound (yes that took seconds of Googling dog images to find - you're welcome)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

so the long steering rod connects to the steering box using something called a rag joint (you can't make this stuff up folks) basically a round piece of an old tire, ha ha that's supposed to absorb some of the vibrations as the farmer goes down the dirt road in one of them trucks, folks these days replace them with U joints (defeating their original shock absorption purpose) and I may do the same (but probably not)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

the long "intermediate" steering shaft that runs from the rag joint on up to the steering column inside the firewall is really made up of two pieces, designed to slide inside each other incase of a head on collision allowing the driver to be decapitated by the hood (ahem bonnet) instead, so I am keeping that rod and will just have to extend it 6 inches, or I may replace the Prius "intermediate" shaft with one from her sister car a Corolla

so much math

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

anyways, so I cleaned the garage yesterday and found this:

I believe it's called a "floor"

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Nice progress! My favorite thing is the discovery of the floor:)

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

Haha, love this thread...entertaining and informative as ever!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

ha ha, if you could only see the side yard now !!!

Re: My Dusty 71 GMCe Electruck
 

oh man thank you so much for taking the time to say that, my ego appreciates that especially after that botched power steering column install, it's not even good enough for the Good Enuff Garage - so your comment comes at the perfect time to fuel my shallowness for the weekend