power steering or manual steering rack on my 88 rx7 gxl
 

my 88 gxl currently has power steering but i have a 86 parts car with a manual rack thing is the 86 is 4 lug and my 88 is 5 lug are they swapable my plans are some track time and some drifting is the manual better i know it has a slightly better turn radius,just really looking for some opinions and any tech i need to know, i do miss the manual rack feeling also my 88 gxl has a tilt up and down steering wheel do i need to get rid of this too?

You can swap it if you like.The connectors for the PS sensor and the ECU should be on the harness.
The tilt steering column can be used if you like it also.Unless you swap the Ignition switch assembly,you will have you use the key that the column came with.
I have tilt and manual in my TII swap..I had Power steering in the car but found that the car would wonder when I punched the throttle..into the Opposing lane!
Manual steering is great on the track but if you are a street driver and like coffee and parallel parking it doesn't mix that well.
(noticed you want Manual instead of Power.,.that is doable.I did it)

so its just a simple swap unplug sensors? and i can retain tilt colunm and 5 lug spindles and what not?

does anything need to be modified?

i'd prefer power steering for daily driving. manual is better for track driving, but not for drifting.

my TII was ordered with a manual rack, having to muscle it at times can be a pain.

not worried about muscles as my past two rx7s were manual racked i know the feeling and when u got guns like me u need no worry, just askin for some tech like what has to be done like a step by step break down. i want to keep my tilt wheel and keep my 5 lug, is it just a disconect and remove everything then replace with manual rack or is there any modifacation needed?

Its all about driver feel.. I took my rack apart to depower it, I just need to get the pinion spline welded (like this http://www.miataturbo.net/showthread.php?t=59655 ).. But I chose to depower instead of getting a manual rack because of the steering rotation is smaller on powered racks, as opposed to manual .

A deciding factor in me choosing to go power-less was driving my cousins miata without power steering, it felt nice. I always preferred a little heavy feeling in the steering.

As far as drifting, Buckey Laing drifts without PS and he is looking at competing in drift series https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-non-technical-pictures-198/meet-buckey-laing-drift-fc-rx7-video-977422/

pop the tie rods off the spindles,undo the rack from the steering shaft,undo the lines from the rack.
take the rack off,lines,and pump,belt,etc.
put new rack in and hook up to the steering shaft and put the tie rods on the spindles.
Basically that is it,in a sort of nutshell.
afterwards it is an alignment of course but you should know that.

Manual 20:1 Ratio
S4 power 15.2:1 Ratio
S5 power 17.4:1 Ratio

Manual will give less road feel and control.

Depowered rack is the way to go.

I have a depowered S4 rack it just needs to have the holes pluged. http://miataroadster.com/miataroadst...s/g-63109.aspx
It has never been on the road after I depowered it so don't worry there is no dirt in it.

This is how it was done.

http://flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php?x=1
https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-gen-archive-72/how-de-power-your-steering-rack-right-way-440198/

$100 plus shipping.:)

PS rack
 

Hey, what site did you find that 17.4:1 power steering rack for 100.00 on? I've looked around quite a bit and can't find one. Thanks for your time.

I haven't done it (yet), so just a FWIW, but I would lean to depowering the PS rack over swapping a manual one, since the steering ratio is pretty slow on these cars as it is.

Oops, sorry, I see this was a bumped dead thread.

Turtle - I believe Spent-It was saying he had a depowered rack available for $100+shipping - back in 2011.