All 89-91's T2's have power steering here in the states. I wanted to remove the power steering to give me more room for intercooler piping and to shed a few pounds. You could just install a loop to close off the fluid in the rack and remove the pump, but the rack is not designed to work without the pump. Thus, driving without the power steering pump is a big pain. So, i bought a brand new 2nd gen manual rack and installed it. It bolts right to the steering column no problem. The only difference is the passenger side bracket is different. So you need the bracket from the manual rack. (If your crazy like me, and buy a factory new one, it comes with the bracket.)

 

how is the feel of the manual rack?

is it easy to navigate parking lots and low speeds?

 

with stock sized tires, its fine. Just like any FC with a manual rack. Much much easier to manage than driving with the power steering rack w/no power steering. It remains to be seen how it will feel when i get the big rims and tires on it. Ill keep you guys posted.

 

Yo,


Cool Seth! Where'd you get the rack? Mazdamotorsports.com or something? How much, blah blah blah? My steering is crazily overboosted, and it's a bit sketchy. Inquiring minds wanna know!

Oh, and you get a real Mazda MAF on there? Or still the Probe? I wanna ride!

KS
1989 GTUs "No snail on my 13B!"

 

Yo. I got the rack from Mike (J9FD3S) i think it was 350, 375 or something like that from Mazda. I put in the stock MAF, drove the same as the ProbeGT one. I drove the car up to the new house in Belmont. I wish the weather was a bit nicer, id drive it some more. Need to break in the motor.

 

I tapped and plugged the holes in my power rack with a 3/8" NPT tap and plugs, and it doesn't require a whole lot of effort to park, etc. That is with 225/40/18's up front. The effort is about the same as my brother's 87 TII with a manual rack. My friend drove my car today--he has a 91 coupe--and he didn't find the effort to be too bad, and he's used to power steering.