SloMo228

I recently completed a manual steering swap on my '87 S and thought I'd post my impressions here.

I got the rack from plyhammersparts and it was in great condition as described. All I did was tear it down to inspect the rack and pinion teeth, replace the lower pinion bearing (although the original seemed OK, I figured I might as well while it was apart), re-grease everything, and give the rack housing a good cleaning and re-spray. I installed it with polyurethane bushings.

My car is 100% street driven at the moment, I do plan to do some AX and DE events once I have it completely up to date on maintenance issues.

The first thing you notice with a manual steering swap is, of course, the higher steering effort required to turn the wheel at low speeds. However, it's not that bad. As you'd expect, once you start rolling a little, the effort required drops substantially. You just have to avoid turning the wheel while stationary, basically. Once you're above 20mph or so, the steering effort is only a little heavier than the power steering was. However, I'm not running big wide tires, so that might be a different story.

The huge difference, and the one that I'm thrilled with, is the substantial improvement in steering feedback. The off-center feel is excellent now, as well. With the power steering, driving at or near the limits of the car, you'd have to pay attention to the movement of the chassis to detect the beginnings of understeer. With the manual steering, you can feel the front wheels just start to lose traction well before the car actually starts to understeer. It's fantastic.

The downside to the improved steering feedback is, well, improved steering feedback. On rough roads, of which Michigan has an abundance, you lose the damping effect that a power steering system has, so hitting bumps and potholes transfers directly to the steering wheel. It's more pronounced at lower speeds. Turning off the road onto a driveway can especially try to pull the wheel out of your hands.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the results. I'll get used to the heavier steering, and I really like the more connected steering feel. I also dropped about 15 pounds off the front of the car with the swap, according to my digital postal scale. Plus, I can never again have a power steering fluid leak!

Voith

Which version of rack did you use? Nice review.

Spidey944

As I've stated before, for a street car, the manual rack is fantastic. This was one of the first things I did on my 86' due to all of the leaks I found after i bought it.

SloMo228

It's the 015 "sport" rack. For street use, I think the 011 rack might be a little better due to the lower effort required, but the 015 is working fine for me so far. I also have a smaller-diameter aftermarket steering wheel, so that also increases the effort required. Still, it's definitely livable.

jimmerp

I have installed an 015 rack in my S as well. Really like it and no more powersteering leaks!

odonnell

Also have an 015 manual rack and it's great, even for daily driving. You get used to the relatively high effort needed at very low speeds pretty quickly.

Voith

I have 015 too. Liked the feel of it much more than on my power assisted S.

J1NX3D

where are all the RHD manual racks on these forums please!