Has anyone put power steering in to an S bug? Is it even possible?

I have never heard of it. Anything is possible. There are electric units that can be retrofitted to the steering column with a lot of custom work. They make the steering about 30% lighter. We have fitted them at work to heavy 2 tonne 1960's cars, and the 30% is definitely needed. I think the last one ended up costing the owner about $6K fitted

yeah lots of 60s and 70/s need power steering now as people are used to moden cons
my sbug feels great with no power steering not heavy nore super light
so i see no need

It could be done but it would be very expensive and largely pointless. The steering in them is definitely not heavy. If you had a sports steering wheel and wanted lighter steering then I would recommend changing to a bigger steering wheel, most likely the stock one. If that was still too heavy for you then I would suggest doing a few arm exercises, as any healthy adult should have no troubles with it!

^ untill you start thinking wider tyres & alot of corners maybe?

The problem we have is, this is an S bug with a standard steering wheel, 165 tyres on 15" rims and all new ball joints, bushings and even steering box (all only 5,000 kms use). I want to go down the path of a german look car with 17 x 7" rims but my wife will not drive this because it is so heavy now. It would be worse with larger wheels/tyres.

By comparison, our 68 standard beetle is great to drive. It seems like power steering in the 68 when comparing it to the 72 S bug and I just can't believe there should be that much difference. The problem is, I have never driven another S bug to have a comparison with mine so I don't know if that is how it should feel or not.

Yogie

I was even thinking about putting one of these in to see if that would help. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1076832 

Any ideas of whether this would pass engineering here in Qld?

Yogie

Yogie, a few headaches involved getting that approved, however... A workshop. In qld was going to be bringing both front & rear kits in & possibly go thru the approval process, don't know if anything further has been done about it at this stage though

I didn't notice any difference in steering between our 70 standard, and 71 super. The super is so light, I use 1 hand like power steering when turning anyway.

It's not a real dramatic difference between the 2,
It would take driving 2 as new bugs to compare before you would really notice the difference as most daily driver standards and supers have pretty sad steering boxes after the elebenty million miles the vast majority of them have travelled.

it's not till you steer a rack and pinion bug that it's a whole new ball game, they really are like power steering but a mendola front end is farking expensive way of going about it.

I have a complete T3 powersteering kit available

PM if you want it

I have spoken to the automotive engineer that i use for approval's in Brisbane and had a good look at the A arm front end that you asked about, i spoke to them in the states about the front end and found out about there welding process so i could let the engineer know how it is made, the engineer stated that he would not approve it as it has welded spindles and other issue's with the welding, i have driven your model before and do remember it having heavy steering.

Thanks guys. I would have thought they should be similar in weight like Joel and Hellbus have said. The box is new so it shouldn't be that but may check the idler arm. The damper is also new.

VW060, can you PM me if you don't want it on public show what other problems your engineer had other than the spindles?

I am not sure yet that I want to go down the power steering road as I really think there is something wrong in my setup so I need to make sure that is right first.

Thanks for you help everyone.

Yogie