dmjames

So, as many of you have noticed from some other threads, I'm in the midst of a lot of upkeep on my 84 NA. I've been driving w/o power steering now for a few months after removing the PS belt but leaving the rest of the system in place. I want to do a proper manual steering conversion (including removing the piston and sealing up the rack the 'right' way), but don't know that I want to necessarily open that can of worms right now since I'm already doing so many other things.

What I don't want is to get done with everything and then end up with ATF all over the damned engine bay due to the leaking reservoir/hoses/pump/etc. Here's the real question: Is it doable to cap off the power steering rack in such a way that I could pull the rest of the system now, then come back and pull the rack later to complete the manual modifications? It's easier to get to all of the PS gear to remove it now since there's so much other stuff I have out of the engine bay anyhow for the belt/roller/waterpump job. I want to do this stuff right, but I'd love to be able to split the job up a bit if possible. If I could avoid needing to do a front-end alignment right now, it'd be nice.

V2Rocket

Pulling the rack off takes like 20 minutes to do.
Much easier if you are junking all the plumbing anyways...as you can cut some stuff.

If you really don't want to pull the rack then get some threaded plugs, remove all the hoses/hard lines and banjo bolts and just plug the fluid ports on the rack.

dmjames

Ah. Wow, ok, guess I've been building this up in my head as a bigger project than I'd thought. Is it possible to do the rack depowering without completely screwing the alignment? Not that I'm against getting an alignment done, I'm just trying to get the car back in service without being dependant on someone else's schedule. That said, I don't want to demolish my tires either!

Dougs951S

You'll be fine, you don't need to remove the rack. Like Spencer said, just cut where you need to in order to speed things along and toss everything you remove in the trash. All you are really dealing with is the pump, the resevouir, a few lines going to the rack, and the cooler loop. A big sharp pair of dykes will be your friend and you'll have it all removed in about 15 minutes. Later on, you can drop the rack in under 5 minutes with all that crap gone, and then you can remove the piston and pack the rack full of grease. If you mark the tie rod end location, you won't need to get an alignment.

V2Rocket

I do toe-alignments with a tape measure....