But the most important reason in my mind is the room. I like power steering, and would of keeped it if it didn't take up the whole side of the engine bay. With the power steering gone, you can remove the WHOLE bracket, and this gives you easy access to a lot more of your engine. I can change plugs in about 5 minutes now. Plus it makes your engine look really really small. This makes the looks on "v8" owners face priceless after you kick there ***!!

 

Sizes were m12 with 1.25 pitch thread for the two lines.

 

Thanks for posting up the thread sizes...can we get this archived or whatever...lots of good info!!

 

Hey Marcus do you still have the stock diameter steering wheel, cuz I am wondering if it would be a lot tougher once I switch to a 300mm/330mm steering wheel.

 

I changed out the power steering on the wife's 7 with a manual rack that I got on eBay for less than $80.00 shipped. We need the A/C here in Phoenix, so I found a compressor mount from a manual rack 7 and replaced the big ugly P/S pump bracket.
Total time - Less than three hours including cleaning and painting the new rack. The wife likes it just fine and I didn't have to worry about rebuilding the power rack because of the fluid gushing out of the left dust boot. That takes a special tool kit (that I also found on eBay) and about $140.00 in parts from Mazda to repair. Mazda wanted $1200 for a new rack. Autozone wanted about $500 for a rebuilt. I truly believe that manual is the way to go.

 

marcus I heard that you have to disconnect some CPU for the PS or else it beeps at you. Is that true? where is it and what did you do? just unplug it?

 

I pulled the fuse for the p/s out..no beeps for me

 

Still on the stock wheel...I dont think it will make it ALOT tuffer, its not to bad at all to begin with, maybe a little.

 

thanx bro.

 

No problem!

Starting to like this forum more and more....its cool when good questions and info is going around.

 

Oh AND CAN WE PLEASE!!!!, get this thing archived, something to make it easy for the next person to find!

 

ok the bolt sizes for the main lines were posted but what about the loop????? It is a different size from the other two. DId uou all just leave the loop on there?

 

The loop..you referring to the cooler line? The feed and return bolts are the same size, the cooler line threads are much bigger. Remove the cooler line.

 

There is a flat loop that goes infront of the condenser. I am refering to that bolt. what size is that?

 

Ok so they are 12mm with a 1.25 pitch right? I would still like an answer on the loop bolt.

 

The computer is by the steering column under the dash I believe, gold box. There is also one on the drivers kick panel near the fuse box, thats for the alarm (read: leave it alone).

 

Well I am happy to post that I now have no power steering. I tried driving the car without the belt attatched and did not notice very much difficulty in comparison to an FB that i had driven without PS so I decided to do it. I love the extra space it just gave me and now I don't hear that old pully whining when i turn on the car.

 

I'd like to know how you got the main bolt of the Power Steering Pulley off without the use of an air gun.

 

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

I took it off with the bracket as one peice.

 

I'm talking about the Main Pulley to the Power Steering Pump. It's a real bitch to get off.

 

you are talking about the pully that is on the PUMP it self right? of the one that is attatched to the engine?

 

The Power Steering Pump Itself.

 

i left it on. I took off the pump and the big bracket off together. I only disconnected the lines from it and the electrical connections.

 

I still havent capped that one yet...pulled the loop out though...but when I do I will let you know. I shouldve checked it with the tap and die set a friend had at the time I was putting my car back together.