My power steering unit started leaking so I just took off the belt. Since most of my driving is highway, I hardly miss the assist and not having the power steering actually makes for more of a sports car feel. My question is, does removing the belt effectively give me nonpower steering that works as well as a stock nonpower system and will doing this cause any damage to the steering or other problems?

Thanks!
Ray

 

I bought and drove one for about a year and autocrossed it a few times with the belt removed. I wrongly thought the pump was bad and found everything working when I reinstalled it. I liked it off. The power unit has a quicker ratio. It had no leaks though.

 

is hard to drive in the city because of the quick ratio of the steering box. but other thant that you should be fine, you dont need PS on non city driving. i like PS of my rx7 and i wont take that off for nothing

 

So a car with power steering has a quicker steering ratio than one with nonpower and when the belt is removed it's harder to steer but turns more quickly than a car with nonpower steering. I guess you could say this isn't good, but I find it handles well and in some ways gives a nicer feel than the power set up. Also just taking the belt off is a lot easier than fixing the power steering leak.

 

My regular autocrossing set up also has as much caster as I can get. I think it gives it a little more dynamic camber but it makes the steering much heavier. The result is that it slows MY input and makes me more precise with the wheel. It also makes it VERY easy to bring the wheel back straight and helps with overcorrections. Probably just personal preference and driving style. The power steering on the 7 really only works at low speed but I have always thought that it is SO easy to steer anyway that it didn't make any real difference,, except maybe for parrallel parking. If it seems TOO heavy to work with,,,,,try some push-ups.

 

Naw, it really steers easy, even my wife can do it. It's a small car concept, nearly lost in the present century and all those ******* SUVs. When's mazda going to make a RX-7? ie under 2000 lbs with a renesis?

Ray