went into advanced autoparts today and asked for a pressure line for my 89 vert. he says its 20 bucks, that doesnt sound right. these cars have 3 powersteering lines correct? two pressure and 1 return? that price doesnt sound right. i went ahead and ordered it anyway and ill just get a refund if its wrong.


well im assuming its wrong. anyone know where i can get those hoses? do i need to order off atkins or something? also could someone shed some light for me, why are there 2 pressure lines??

 

That sounds about right. I remeber shopping the lines recently and they were about that much.

There are two pressure lines because one is for the assist, and the other is for feel. The sub pump pressurizes these little pistons that act on the spool valve and make it act like the torsion spring in the valve is stiffer at higher speeds. Mazda was all about this at that time. My 89 MX6 GT has a similar system, with most of the electronics on the rack.

 

oh ok,cool. wow talk about complecating **** for no reason

my powersteering is grossly over assisted, is ther a way to adjust it to assist less? slow and fast speeds the weight of a feather on either the right or left side of the wheel will make it move

 

Its not for "no reason." The main part of steering feel is that torsion spring in the valve body, but that is static. Mazda was trying to get assist when you need it and feel when you need it. I havent driven the FC system much, but the equivalent on my MX6 is superb.

Does it feel overboosted at high speed, or slow speeds? The steering should feel harder at speed. If you want to test it you can unplug the stepper motor, as its failure mode is at max feel/stiffness, unless the valve in the pump is frozen.

 

yes overboosted always. its kinda scary on high speed corners where there is no resistance at all. id say its worse at high speeds. i assume the stepper motor is the plug on top of the powersteering pump? if i unplug this what should be the out come im looking for? ill try it tomorrow.

 

The steering should get noticeably heavier. If nothing happens then the valve may be stuck.

 

ah, thank you