RE: Servotronic

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> I just thought about this again, and a parallel resistor would divide the
> current going through the rack assist coil. My suggestion about the series
> resistor was wrong. Anyone want to try it?
> 
... actually you may have been right to begin with ... it all dependends
upon whether the thing that is driving the rack is a true current source or
a voltage source (Norton or Thevenin equivalents for the EE types) ... if
the control module was a voltage source you would have been right to begin
with ... and if it were a current source the parallel resistor would work.
The thing is that this approach would affect the valve at low speeds as well
as freeway speeds, so you might end up with a situation where there the
assist at speed was fine, but it was too low when parking.  

This thing has piqued my interest enough that I'm actually looking for
Servotronic control modules for the V8 so that I can open it up to have a
look.  I'm figuring that it is a relatively simple analog "computer" that is
doing the current mapping, and that by changing the appropriate components
in the controller I can reduce the assist at highway speeds without
affecting it at low speeds.  Chances are I'd add some sort of disable switch
to set the amount of assist at a fixed value for things like track events
...

Thanks for the thoughts David!
Steve