Allegro Club International

[alan wilson]

Hi all
As some of you will know, I was rather poorly a couple of years ago and one of the side effects of my illnes has turned out to be some arthitic symptoms in my arms. Now I will understand those who say "your own fault for putting 7jx15 alloys on an Allegro" but at the end of the day, I have trouble manouevering the damn thing at low speeds. Having gone right "over the top" already with the customising, I have been toying with the possibility of not only having the first injection Allegro (been there, done that!) but to have the first Allegro with power steering. My friend Eddie has been pestering me for over a year to bolt a pump on and get a rack to fit but with all best will in the world, I couldn`t see a way to do it - until I went to Tatton this year and saw a Mini Clubman with MASSIVE alloys and proudly displaying a summary of mods ( K series 16v engine, etc etc ) and - EPS!! For those who don`t know, EPS is "electronic power steering" anf instead of a hydraulic pump and bulky rack, the assistance is built into the column via an electric motor. There are massive advantages to this system over traditional hydraulics as there is less power reduction from the engine having to drive a pump and the amount of assistance can be regulated electronically dependant on speed - in other words, the power steering will operate at low speed, but gradually reduces to the point that at around 20-30 MPH the system is manual again giving normal stability at higher speeds.
After a lengthy chat to the Mini`s owner, I discovered that this conversion is not uncommon. The donor for the bits is another relative of BL, the MGTF sports car. A quick scoot round Fleabay revealed an MGTF breakers in Glossop I rang them and got the parts required including two front seats (a new project) for £140 and hungrily started stripping, measuring and plotting the evil plan!
Anyhow, I`m a fair way down the line now so I thought I could finally reveal what`s going on as it looks good for a result. I`ve taken pics of progress so far, I`l post them as soon as I find out what Mary has done with my card reader!
Matt Whitely seems to think that this conversion may be of interest to other not-so-young-anymore members. I would hve to point out that a good deal of originality will be lost in this project, so whilst not ruling out a "discrete" conversion, I would have to put the thinking cap on on that one!
Next post soon
Alan
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Well someone had to do it.....

[Richard Howe]

Sounds very interesting; I saw a similar idea on eBay a while back, only it was a contemporary mod for ADO16s! I was sorely tempted to see if it could be adapted to Allegros, but it sold before I got my gumption up.
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...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.

[Laurence]

Hi Alan,

Have a look here for more info on EPS or EPAS conversions.

www.16vminiclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16507

They're quite a resourceful crew on this site, there isn't much they haven't converted.

[alan wilson]

Thanks for that Lawrence, I already scoured the Mini forums for info - it would appear that the Corsa system is quite popular with them but I decided to go with the MG setup (closer to home and all that...). Anyhoo, here`s the pics:

Modified steering column to rack shaft:

It`s an MG shaft joined to an Allegro one via a coupling made by my local machine shop, then TIG welded and also pinned twice.

This is the EPS column roughly in place, you can see where a piece of the pedal box had to be cut away to allow room for the motor:

This will be rebuilt to include the lower column bracket from the MG.

The colunm in place wthout the dash:

The column is being fitted with the MG switches etc. Imagine how gobsmacked I was when I saw that the cowling fits perfectly into the recess of the Allegro dash:


Finally the end effect with binnacle installed:


Noiw I need to fabricate a new upper support for the column in mild steel which I will have replicated in 2mm steel locally. Then tack weld the MG lower bracket to the pedal box, remove it complete with the new bracket then fabricate new reinforcement to reinforce the pedal box where the piece was removed. Then it`s on to the wiring. Also I am obtaining a custom made speed sensor which will screw into the gearbox speedo drive, the speedo cable then screws on top of it. This will give the steering ECU the signal it needs to reduce the assisstance as speed increases. The other signal needed is already there at the engine ECU (it`s the saame system as the MG) - see now why I didn`t go down the Corsa road, this has all been relatively straightforward so far. The only other area of concern is the power drawn by the system, this isn`t a problem either as the car will be using the MG ignition switch, has a 70 amp alternator and an uprated battery already (thanks to the twin headlamp high power upgrade)
Hopefully all will be ready to install soon for next years shows
Cheers
Alan
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Well someone had to do it.....

[Richard Howe]

Looks to be coming along a treat - maybe we should get you some custom MG Allegro badges?
_________________
...that's why Allegro will look as good 5 years from now as it does today.