i'm looking for feedback from folks who have manual steering racks on how they like them for street use. my newest acquisition has a power steering rack that has been filled with grease and capped off. i suspect that a true manual rack would be a little less stiff than this?

 

Bloddy hell Shaheed, you have owned the car what 2 days??? Give it a chance to break down first!

PS if you ever want to sell the CS cam or the 3" downpipe... call me

 

dude this is my third 951, i know to open the checkbook from the very beginning...

uh huh, right....that stuff is staying...

 

Yes true manuals are easier, theyve got a different ratio.

 

you bought Teddies car?
~Eyal

 

Tifosi man has a full conversion to a manual rack. Paragon sells them for about 700 ish. Pm him. He'll get you all hooked up.

 

Put the power steering back on, much more enjoyable.

 

I converted my '86 track car to manual at the same time I converted the front end to late offset with S spindles/hubs/brakes. I bought a set of all new parts for about $800, as I didn't want some worn out rack or tie rods. I run quite a bit of negative camber, so the effort at slow speeds is barely noticable. In fast, long, corners, the effort really increases, but not to objectionable levels. My intent was to get better feedback on the track. There is some improvement in feedback, but not as great as I hoped. I'm going to leave it as is, but it was a small improvement for the time and money involved. For the street, I would definitely recommend keeping the stock power steering, it is a very good, communicative system. If you use a smaller than stock steering wheel, you better be a weight lifter if you go to manual steering.

 

You could try the Delrin steering rack bushing kit that Paragon sells. I bought it but my car isnt back together so I cant comment. IIRC it was $55 or $60USD

 

New, stock bushings came with my conversion, and the stock bushing fits in VERY snugly. It took some effort to get it together properly with no pinching or distortion of the bushing. The delrin bushing may result in a little better feedback, but I don't see how the rack can move much if the stock bushing is in good condition. The stock bushings do deteriorate, so having a good one is essential. The stock bushing is about $8.00 and the delrin is about $60. It would be interesting to do an A-B test, or have a minicam watch the rack under hard cornering.

 

well my wife drove the car for the first time today....it's getting converted back to power steering as soon i can source the parts (rack, pump, reservoir, etc)

 

Buy a crapped out pump from ebay. Rennbay sells a pump rebuild kit for 18 bucks. I'm doing a rebuild and write up for them as soon as Travis gets the parts here this week. There are plenty of hoses etc for cheap. It shouldn't be too hard. I have a free resevoir if you want mine. I have a new purty one from Forge.

 

i need to get my PS back up. my PS cooler is pinched, which cause high pressure and blew that ruber house on the driverside right above the cross member. If any of you have those parts cheap, or insight on how to fix that hose without having to pull the x-member, let me know.
~Eyal

 

i put manual rack on my '86 951 after replacing rack after rack after rack. that crappy power rack will fail on you time after time so if you go with the power, be prepared to do it again in a year or so. the manual rack's ok (much, much easier than the power rack with no pump running like you have) but seems very sensitive to alignment settings. i backed off the caster and it's a little better now. i kind of miss my old power rack now though. i agree that the increase in feel isn't as great as the increase in stiffness--it does get tiring on the street and i think for racing it would wear you out although i guess at the higher speeds it would be ok. i just remember when i tracked my car, i was pretty worn out at the end of the day with power steering (actually had some blisters on my hands one time--no gloves though.)

in my opinion, the rack is the single most flawed thing on our beloved cars. if you decide to go manual, there's some things you should know and some parts you will need in addition to the rack. do a search with my user name and you will find the exact parts needed. i put a pretty complete thread about it when i originally did it about a year ago so look for that.

good luck!

 

I have the recently rebuilt PS pump and a PS tank for you, Shaheed.

You will need the lines (and I would try to find a good used rack).