goldminer

If I disconnect my power steering will it put added stress on the steering components? Has anyone got any long term experience with a power to no-power conversion? My power steering has developed a major leak so I thought I'd save the money on repairing it and gym membership in the one hit.

tifosiman

Having a disconnected power rack isn't ideal, the ratio is too great and makes ordinary everyday driving and parking difficult at best.

Really the best way is to source a manual rack, manual tie rods, and manual intermediate shaft and install. The ratio on the manual rack has slightly more turns to lock so it is easier to turn, and gives lots more feedback.

But to answer your question directly, you could remove the power bits, plug the fluid lines to the rack, and put some grease on the rack and pinion gears, then drive it like that. Any manual rack, whether it be one that was engineered that way or reversed engineered, will put more strain on the joints in the intermediate shaft and they will develop slop sooner.

BTDT IMHO.

genikz

My power steering pump kind of fell off at my first auto-x event...and I've been running w/o the pump for over a year now.

No issues that I can tell.

However, I did leave the resevour in place to keep the rack lubricated. Eventually I'll pull it off the car, grease it and seal it, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

AlpharettaRK

It won't put extra stress on the steering components but it will put extra stress on your arms. My race car is a slug to turn at low speeds. I think you can make that easier by taking some caster out of the alignment. I drove a friend's race car once with disconnected power steering and it was very easy to turn, almost too light and he attributed it to less caster. Makes sense I guess since caster is what brings the wheels back to straight.
Cheers
Randy

FRporscheman

There is someone on RL selling a manual rack right now, I think it was $300.

ilikepinkcrayons

When my rack was leaky, I baught a rack from, of all places, AutoZone. It was brand new, had a lifetime warrantee, and was way cheaper than any rebuild ZF ones I could find. When I put it on, I realized that all my hoses and resevoir leaked too. I guiss the PO put power steering fluid instead of ATF and it messed it all up. I didn't want to buy anything else at the time, so while I was saving up money I realized that it wasn't that bad, and has been that way for about 10,000 miles or so. No problems, and although its tough at parking lot speeds, its fine in the curvies...

goldminer

I guess I need to read up on this a bit more but I could do this instages and first see how it goes by disconnecting the belt for the power steering motor. If the steering isn't too heavy I could then disconnect/cap the pipes and put some grease on the steering rack???

DarylJ

That's what I did 5,000 miles ago. Was initially all freaked out about not plugging up lines and greasing the rack, etc. Then I forgot about it. And it's still just fine.

josephsc

I've been doing this in stages as well. I have a manual rack, ready to be installed, but I first just tried out running it without belt. Then I plugged and greased the power-steering rack in a de-powered mode (which made it easier).

I'll put in the manual rack when the de-powered rack finally completely dies -- but I've waited five years so far and it hasn't died yet....

FRporscheman

Which car is this? I.e. what size wheels and tires are on this car? I drove for 2 weeks without the PS belt and I couldn't tolerate it. But at the same time, I'm leery about switching to a larger steering ratio.

Yummybud924

lol my rack started leaking a month or two ago and all teh atf basicly came out and i refilled it with the lucas power steering stop leak which is like honey basicly and obviously leaks slower now but the pump screams when the fluid is still cold and I'm scared the pump is going to blow up because of the ultra thick fluid. I just top it up with some atf now when it goes down.

once the fluid warm up the pump stops screaming and it seems fine so I don't really care to replace it right now.

manual rack sucks in parking lots so I'd like to keep the power steering.

josephsc

The 944, which runs smallers width tires (only 215's). The other difference might be the type of driving -- it's definitely a work out when parallel parking. Especially if you have to park on a hill... Because of this, I never go into San Francisco with this car.

ilikepinkcrayons

If you're leaking from the resevoir or one of the cheap lines in there, you should concider fixing that, cuz like everyone says, parking with P.S. minus the power kinda sucks.

If you've got a leaky rack, pull off the belt and see how you like it. A year ago or so, I put some Stop Leak in and drove it around a bit, and I actually preffered it without power: much more feed back and a more confident driving experience.

If you don't mind the parking (which I got over), and you don't mind spending a bunch of money, then go full manual conversion. I don't know from experience, but I bet it will help with the parking lot issue, and make driving a little more enjoyable.

tyro

I run a depowered rack, it's not completely terrible. Getting in and out of tight spots can be a pain now and then, but for the most part it has been fine.

I think the added benefit of not having the possibility of another leak outweighed the benefit of PS for me.

Basically I removed the rack, disassembled, removed the little piston inside, capped it, slathered with grease and put it back together - and got rid of the mess of lines, reservoirs, belts and pumps in the process..even sold the pump on ebay for $50!

Here's a good site to get an idea of what you'd be doing: http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php

tifosiman

Honestly the change in ratio is barely noticeable. After driving with it for about a day it seems completely normal. The feedback you get is just incredible.

A real manual rack (not a power rack that has been "manualized") is not that bad at all in regards to parking and other day to day activities. Have you actually driven a 944 with a manual rack.

People just need to understand the two are completely different. The waters keep getting muddied when people talk about "manual" racks when they truly are not.