Has anyone here de-powered their steering? Options

[blu94gt]

Anyone here de-powered their steering? And I'm not talking about just removing the pump, I'm talking about removing all the stuff, and rebuilding the steering rack without all the valving and such for the power steering, essentially making it a manual steering rack.

It was something I'd seen done a lot in the Miata forums and such, didn't know if anyone here was lurking with this mod or not.

[markie]

no power steering sucks

[jordisonjr]

Absolutely terrible not having power steering if its your daily.
My first car, a honda civic dx had no power steering and I learned to drive 5 speed in it.
I had to parallel parked it minimum 3 times a day. It was hell haha.

[richee3]

I'm actually curious about this as well. I have no intentions of de-powering my steering, but on a lightweight car like a Celica or a Miata, it doesn't matter nearly as much. I currently have to move my Celica around quite a bit, and I don't have a motor in it. It's not terrible without any power steering assistance, so I'm curious how it would be if I was actually driving the car around.

As a side note, I assume that removing all the power steering components would only be worth it if you had a track Celica. I see no real gains besides slightly reduced weight and very slightly reduced drag on the engine, but combined with several other mods, it could help make a very competent track Celica.

[95CelicaST]

My MR2 doesn't have power steering. I absolutely love it. When I drive my WRX (Power Assist) I feel like I'm driving a boat. Non-power steering gives you a much better feel of the car.

[cjh4l22]

I'm working on doing just that to mine.

[qatar11]

I did it as part of a 3SGTE Swap (going from an ST) .. I didn't like it...

[Spartacus94]

Maybe I'm wrong but a car like the miata weighs probably couple hundred pounds lighter than the celica and it's RWD so the tranny isn't completely up front, the mr2 is a Mid engine RWD so most of it's weight is in the back, so with these cars I don't think powersteering assists the driver as much as it would the celica since it's FWD; most of it's weight is up front, on top of the wheels that turn, so the lack of power steering will be much more noticeable/troublesome than in one of the previously stated cars.

[celica74]

smaller pully on the pump might be your best bet at lowering the power of it. try it out.

[mt953]

i had a 87 rx7 turbo2 that had a manual rack and i love it and i was just thinking of this mod last week cause one of the FD guy is de-powering his rack. i would like to see any info for it. but i would all so look at swaping in a ture manual rack like one off a FC

[Defgeph]

I would like to see any information as well, I ditched the pump along time ago. I'd like to switch the rack out too.

[mt953]

if anyone has as spare rack measure it down in detail and we can see what can be swaped in am going to find a used FC manual rack

[mt953]

just found this. a good start
manual steering rack

also found some toyota racks
toy racks

This post has been edited by mt953: Feb 25, 2011 - 6:45 PM

[Rider]

What's the best way to "remove" (disable?) power steering, without risking damage to any component (column, rack, etc)? I can tell my pump's got maybe 10-20k left on it and I really don't wanna replace it when it goes.

I drove a Renault Clio with no power steering for about 1200 miles (in one week) in both urban and rural areas, at all different speeds, and including parallel parking, and it was great... so I doubt I'd miss power steering on the Celi.

This post has been edited by Rider: Mar 1, 2011 - 1:42 AM

[95CelicaST]

Perhaps the non-power steering rack from a mr2 would work?

a de-powered rack isn't geared the same... It is really difficult to maneuver at low speed.