Rattaan

From the steering rack there are 3 lines running to the pump. 2 high pressure, and one return as far as I can tell from the FSM. When removing P/S, #1 - which lines get looped to each other? #2 - which line is plugged? I've looked at several pages of info on removing P/S and none will say this simply. These are all I need to know before doing this, thanks in advance!

Rattaan

this can't be a hard question, there's so many people on here that have no p/s listed on their sigs.....
anyone ??

cbrock

iTrader: (1)

Plug all the holes in the steering gear and loop the lines that went from the rack to the gear housing. The one line is approx in the middle of the rack and the other is on the drivers side. It's kind of a pain to get to without pulling the rack. However, with the autozone tie rod seperator (gear puller style) you can have the rack out in about 15 minutes. It'll make life sooooo much easier. You'll just need a buddy to hold the steering wheel straight when you put it back on. In the FSM you see two bolts that hold the steering shaft (from the wheel to the gear housing), you need to loosen both.

I believe the banjo (high pressure) bolts are a type of metric oil pan bolt..take it a parts store and compare the diameter and threads. The cooling loop, also facing towards the front of the vehicle is a 3/8 FLARED pipe thread...again, take it with you and compare. As for those little bastard lines on the back of the housing, I wasn't able to find a bolt in it's size..too fine of a pitch for all the stores I went to. I just cut the hard line hose off and found one of those hex head plugs that was about the same size as the hole. Drilled, tapped...called it a day.

To loop the lines, do a search for some pics. I didn't do it their way, I used -6 braided line. But I tend to go overkill.

Rattaan

Okay, what do you mean loop the lines from the rack to the gear housing? Can you explain that a little more in-depth? Better yet, does someone have a diagram of how the fluid flows though the rack while in operation?

dr0x

I found w/ the steering pump disconnected it was WAY harder to steer at low speeds than removing all lines, draining the fluid from the rack and plugging the holes. This is how I did it.

1) Remove pump and ps bracket.
2) Remove the ps line that runs to the front of the car, Id imagine its for cooling the fluid.
3) Remove all left over lines.
4) Find the correct bolts to plug the holes
5) Now take out the passanger side plug (its the only one on the rack over there) and turn the wheels to the right. Now put the bolt back in and remove the bolt in the middle of the rack, turn the wheels to the left. Put that bolt back in, now go remove the passanger bolt and turn them to the right again. Do this a few times (be sure to put the bolts back in after every time!). PS fluid will gush out while doing this making a mess . I found it way way way easier to steer at low speeds after this. It gets most of the air and ps fluid out of the rack (as you can tell).

Rattaan

Alrighty, I think I may not have asked this quite right. Let me start over. I want to be able to put this back to stock if I ever need to, so destroying original lines and fittings by cutting or filling with JB weld is not really an option. I would like to know the flow pattern of the ps fluid in order to loop lines without causing the fluid or air to be compressed. I don't want to drain all the fluid either, even if it works for some people without it. Is that a little clearer?

marcus219

i agree with drox...thats how I did it..except I didnt open any drain plug..i just took off the cooler, return and feed line from the steering gear, turned wheel lock to lock several times. I know how it feels, i was searching for how to do this and nobody seemed to know. I then just put bolts into the 3 holes....steering feels good turning it at a stop, havent got a chance to drive it yet.

dr0x

You buy the bolts to put in at any local parts store.. you dont need to cut any lines or anything. I believe that they were m12x1.25 15mm bolts I used.

marcus219

I see what your saying about putting the p/s back to stock if you want too..but i've heard (even drox said) it will be harder to turn with the lines looped. I dont know the exact stuff you will need, but you can do this w/out damaging a thing. Remove the pump, remove the cooler line and plug it at the gear with a bolt, then (this is where you have to find the right stuff) loop the feed and return line on the steering gear. If you want to be able to put it back to p/s, why not just leave the belt off??

Rattaan

You guys are killing me. I don't want to drain the fluid. I just want the fluid to flow back and forth in the rack without being compressed in one direction or the other. I know it may take a slight amount more effort to move some fluid back and forth, but I'd rather not run the rack dry(or mostly dry as the case may be). I want the fluid to travel from one area to the other without being blocked by a plug. Sorry if I'm repeating myself alot, but I can't think of a better way to say it.

dr0x

Why? It doesnt damage the rack + it has a cleaner look. When the time comes, take out the bolts, bolt the lines back in, bolt the pump back on and go. Id rather have my rack empty than have old, dirty and hot fluid running back and forth thru it.

Rattaan

So which lines do I loop then? The return line and the bigger high pressure line, or the return to the smaller high pressure line, or the other little lines from the rack to the return or high pressure lines? This is why I'd like to see a picture of the flow pattern through the rack.

Rattaan

If you drain all the fluid, and cap all the openings, you have air in the rack and will be pressurizing it when turning the wheel though, right?

silverrotor

iTrader: (1)

dr0x///you're sure, therefore you know for sure that these are the right bolts for the 3 holes that need to be plugged?

I've been contemplating this for a while now. Lazy actually, wasn't sure on bolt measurements though.

xlnt7

There are three lines (as you stated in your first post), one return line (which goes to the fluid reservoir), and two pressure feeds (a high pressure feed, which is the large fitting coming off the pump near the banjo bolt), and a lower pressure feed (which comes off the stepper motor solenoid). What you need to do is connect the high pressure feed to the return line (ie bypass the pump). You can block the lower pressure feed at the rack (ie remove the line all together) and fit a M10x1.0 plug (ie use a brake line fitting that's had the end brazed over). How you connect the high pressure line and return feed is up to you. A custom line would be the go. If you follow the return line from the reservoir back down thru the front cooling line and back to the rack you can see what two points on the rack need to be joined together (ie. the two large M12x1.0 fittings). You will not be able to buy banjo bolts for these, so joining them will require you to get some old lines, vut the ends off and have them joined by a pressure hose company (in Australia, we have Enzed and Pirtek). Good luck.

marcus219

theres two lines that go to the top of the pump, feed and return...one line is bigger than the other..you can figure out a way to loop them with the lines still connected to the steering gear, or remove the lines at the steering gear and rig up some assembly to loop them from there. You seem to not want to "Plug" anything, so i dont know what your going to do with the cooler line..that is underneathe the pump, and the biggest bolt on the steering gear...i reccomend just plugging it. The problem I ran into when I was first trying to loop the lines with them still connected to the gear, is that the lines are two different sizes....and I dont see how you could loop them at the gear....without some custom banjo bolts and lines. Plugging them will be much easier....and if you want to put it back on...it will be easy too.....

Rattaan

Thank you xlnt7 and marcus219. That's really all I was trying to find out in the first place. The larger high pressure hose goes straight to the return line, and the smaller one is corked? Is the amount of fluid flowing through these two lines the same? or just similar, requiring some air-space so as not to compress the fluid anywhere? Sorry to continue with more questions but I like to be 100% sure and planned before doing things like this. Thanks again.

cbrock

iTrader: (1)

You do want to be care with which lines you loop. If you loop the two banjo fittings you will blow out the rear oil seal. Not hard to fix but you do have to pull the rack. If you're that concerned about going back to stock, just buy a second set of used lines. Bet it might set you back 15 bucks. What wasn't clear about my method? Was it the Plug all the holes in the steering gear (IE that hunk of aluminum that the steering connects to)? Or was it the loop the two remaining lines on the rack itself? If you take the time and pop your hood, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about.

dr0x

I took every line off my ps assembly and plugged them all. There was like 5 in total. If you do it like I said the air inside the rack is minimized (however impossible to get out with out placing it in a vacuum).

cbrock

iTrader: (1)

After the rear seal blew on mine, most of the fluid had drained. Once I made up my -an hose, I pretty much followed the FSM for the bleeding procedure and put fluid back into the rack. This way it has some oil to lubricate the seals. It's only some-what hard to steer from a stop ->5mph..after that it's a breeze

wankel drwankel

in 1986 mazda produced a second gen car that had no power stearing and the rack can be swaped into our cars with no trouble. bad *** swap easier to steer and much tighter...

bingoboy

manual steering rack = 1 more turn lock to lock

SonicRaT

iTrader: (6)

I've done exactly what dr0x has done, not as elaborate of draining, but it worked fine, steered fine, didn't make any abnormal noise or anything. Just took the pump off and pluged the remaining holes.

TonyTurboII

Id just pick up a manual rack if I was you. Theyre not too hard to come by here.