A no bull$h1t assesment: powersteering removal
 

alright....now i KNOW there is a thread somewhere pertaining to the "manualizing" of the PS racks but i cant seem to find it....i basically need the real pros and cons toward doing this. and what is this business about steering being sluggish becuase of it?? im right at that point in my project where i have to decide to either keep it or convert it. and i cant decide. when i drive i want to really FEEL the road. but at the same time, i want to drift and i dont know how hard it is with out it.

thanks
steve

Before you 'depower' the rack, you should drive a car that has that procedure done. You simply cannot rely on someone's description of how it feels. Too much difference in opinion and tolerance. You can also get a pretty good idea from taking your belt off and unhooking the two hoses on a very temporary basis. Use a couple of layers of cloth over the open hose ends then secure the cloth in place with duck tape to protect the system from dirt, in case you do not like the results. Try it that way to affirm that you like the results before you make the plunge.

Good luck.

ok i read the thread....someone def. needs to talk about the 15:2:1 steering abit more. they said its harder to steer and takes a bit to get used to? i have an 87 T2 so thats the rack that i have...what does 15:2:1 mean exactly??

shorter lock to lock ratio, and because of that, more human strength required to turn the wheel.

Is there a difference in the steering column between manual and p/s? I'm curious if the p/s system is skinnier or less beefy, and if there's a greater chance of the column snapping when changed into a manual system. Looking at the S4 FSM they look similar, but it's tough to tell.

fuck it, its goin. i promise i wont bitch and moan if i dont like it tho.

The PS's column is pretty beefy any way you look at it (it's tubing over an inch wide at some points).

It's designed to collapse but the insides of are probably nigh-indestructible in a twisting sense.

The weak point would probably be the part where the wheel mounts, and where the column shaft mounts to the rack (which are both 1/2 inch solid steel, with spline teeth).

Letting us know how it goes doesn't necessarily qualify as "bitching and moaning".

If this is the tread where it has you carefully cut the seal out with a cut off wheel. There is a much easier way to do that.

Put the rack on peice of wood and hold it verticly with the seal at the bottom.

Get a small to medium (small not minature) ball pean hammer.

Hammer on the seal, it took me less than 30 second to crack the very hard seal and break it off without doing any damage to the rack.

alright so whats the difference between taking this stuff out of the rack and cutting this seal, and just closing off the steering fluid pipes?

also, what are you acomplishing by taking this seal out? is that where the fluid pushes and pulls the rack thus by taking it out the rack moves freely with the power of the steering colomn?

The power part works by pumping fluid in and out of the rack, which pushes on the piston. You can get basically the same effect by draining the rack, but you'd better be sure you got it all out, or it could cause issues, especially near full lock. Then you've got little lube in there and that could cause issues. Looping the lines is similiar, but you'd generally keep the fluid in the rack, in which case you're now having to pump the fluid back and forth, increasing effort and decreasing feel.

Removing the piston/seal removes the last little bit of friction and eliminates a potential problems. It's not that much harder to do, I think it's worth doing.

Now that I've lived with the depowered rack for so long I definetely think a 15:1 rack would be just fine, and I might put one in some day.

okay two more questions.

can i remove the rack without have to remove the sway bar?

does anyone have pictures of there rack as examples? the miata howto rack is much more simple then mine. i have all kinds of tubes that i dont know what to do with. (the cooler lines and the lines comming and going to the ps pump)

if at all possible pictures of the different kinds of doing it. i think i want to take out the seal to reduce friction but i need rx7 pics...not miata (sorry, im a very visual person...im a graphic artist after all)

You could probably just unbolt the mounts, and leave the end links connected, and then just move it out of the way... either way, removing a steering rack isn't going to be fun.

I think I removed the swaybar, I don't think it'll go in or out with it in there. It didn't take that long, you could do it in an afternoon.

It really doesn't matter what hoses are attached, take them all off and cover the holes somehow. The Miata rack is internally very, very similiar to mine.

There is an even more ghetto way to pull PS, I saw this on a car I went and looked at, I suppose it probably worked. The owner took the lines of and capped them one with a grease nipple, then drilled some small holes into the body of the rack to release the pressure, to his credit he put vaccum solenoid filters on the holes. and he pumped the pinion gear area with grease.

I didn't buy that car.

anyone have pics? thats really what im lookin for.

i think im going to cap off the 3 lines and connect the lines that are connected to the accual rack...BUT when i do, im going to maky a filler cap so that there isnt any extra air pockets :D

anyone tried this?

simply caping off the lines and leaving fluid in the system will hydro lock the power steering rack.

^Yup, that's part of what taking the seal out helps with.

I just recently did mine (17:1 rack), and I shoulda taken pictures :(

You will need to remove the sway bar to get the rack out, and even then it's a tight squeeze (and a bit tighter to get back in). The hardest part of the whole process for me was getting the inner tie-rod ends off of the rack. Thankfully you really only need to remove the one nearest the pinion. Cutting off the inner seal with a cutoff wheel took less than a minute once the rack was out of the sleeve.

I looked around to try and find bolts the right size to plug all of the line holes, but I couldn't find all the right sizes. I ended up plugging all of the PS line holes with that two-part putty stuff that sets up super hard (sorta like JB Weld).

Oh, and don't be stingy with the grease when you're re-assembling everything :)

-chris

keep in mind my engine is out right now so i have all the room in the world ...i think

I currently have an 87TII that used to have PS but was removed. I haven't parallel parked yet, and quite frankly I hope I never have to. However, after about 4mph, it drives very nice. You'd never really know the difference. The PS will only help you out when you're not moving, after that it's like any other car.