I finally drove my FD after modding my power steering rack for full manual.From my experience its not that hard to turn the wheel while your still and when you are driving its supper easy.The turns fell a bit sharper and i feel like i have more control of the car.when i had my power steering the wheel was vary sensitive.I am glad a when manual and i advice those of you who are thinking of doing this mod to just do it.Howard Coleman was right "there is no need for power steering on a 2700Lbs car"

 

Glad it worked out! I just did the poor mans conversion and it made a world of difference as well.

 

Thanks for the feedback i've been thinking of ditching mine, I'll probably do that very soon. I hate how the steering feels at high speeds.

 

By modding it, do you mean you just looped the lines or did you do something else to it?

 

I took apart the steering rack,removed the seals and welded the quill and pluged the holes.

 

That's what I thought. You oughta do a how-to for the forum

 

Nice, i didnt have PS on my t2 and it felt SOLID.

I might consider doing this mod sometime in the future.

 

Congrats! I did the same a couple years ago.

There's a write-up on the Miata forums that I followed since the rack is essentially the same. It's really easy. I didn't take any pics else I would have done a write up then.

Enjoy the new feel!

 

Manual rack + FD = awesomeness. I have 255's in the front on 17x10's, no issues.

By far one of the best cheapo mods.



=Ben

 

how different is looping it compared to a full welded quill and everythign? I'm thinking of doing it to see what it feels like and if I can handle it at AutoX... how much fluid should you leave in?

 

^ im also curious of the difference/if any. what is the Quill?


Drew

 

I would have done the write up but i am not so great in writing, plus i still can`t figure out how to post pictures after paragraphs.lol

Today i learned that with the right combination between the clutch and gas pedal,backing and parking is a breeze.

When i am turning corners in the streets the steering gets a "touch" tight but nothing a little muscle can`t handle.

 

Get up at noon, then get up at midnight. Same difference. Ok..that was the long way to describe night and day.

The loop line maintains all the internals. The problem there is that the seals within the rack are producing a ton of resistance. The typical thing to do it maintain a bit of fluid in there to keep things lubed. There's nowhere for that fluid to go so you're trying to force that through with no pump to help.

The mod removes said seals. The quill is part of the pinion (to simplify things). There's a little play by design. That play directs the fluid in the right direction. Since we're not dealing with any hydraulics anymore, the quill no longer serves any purpose, so it's welded to get rid of that play. What that does is remove ALL play so when you turn the steering wheel a hair, depending on your alignment, you will notice a change. It increases sensitivity, but also greatly increases feel.

This is what I followed...

http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php?x=1

It's pretty straigt forward.

The only thing it doesn't tell you is what/where to weld on the quill. I don't have a pic handy, but it's pretty obious when you're looking at it. It's almost two halves of the thing. You can see where they essentially move between each other. You basically spot weld on either side, get rid of some slag and you're good. It doesn't have to be pretty.

 

this is the quill after i welded it.

 

its a bad picture but i like the room i now have.

 

I did the loop mod and took that car for a drive (FD).

Steering was way too heavy for autox, and the P/S went back in.

It would be nice to drive a full manual car to see just what it feels like.

 

I just drove railgun's car (Thanks again) with the full mod and am sold. Steering it really isn't that hard at all and the feel seems great. I will be doing mine shortly...

 

how hard is it to get the rack out with the engine in, haven't been under my car in a while forgot the actual tolerances on how close the rack sits to the sub frame and engine.

 

not hard at all.the bolts can be take off from the bottom of the car. It will be a little bit of a hassle getting it out around everything else but with a little patience and about 2 hrs time you will get it.

 

sorry to bump this thread... but I had a question re: the welding of the quill. Can I just blob on some MIG there? I have a friend who has a MIG but no tig...

 

That quill is a pretty thick thunk of metal. Personally I would stick weld it for more penetration. Oh yea, thx for the bump because I completely missed this thread.

 

I put a FC manual rack in my FD.

The ratios are different so turning it is quicker.

I really like how it turned out - been running that for about 2yrs now.

 

Im pretty sure the gearing in the fc rack gearing is less sensitive. More turns lock to lock.

 

How did u guys get the snap ring on the end of the rack out? The FD rack seems to have a cap on the end that the miata rack doesnt. Is that cap just threaded on ?

-Austin