M758

I put manual steering on my 944 along time ago.

I did by chance one day. My powersteering belt adjusted broke so my qucik on track fix was pulling the pump off. I was surprises that the car stiff felt good. In fact I felt more of what the front tires were doing. It make it easier for me to make minor corrections an balance the car as it in general felt more direct.

I ran like this for a long time for a 3 reason, 1) nice feel, 2) less weight Pump was 5 lbs or so, 3) easier that trying to put the pump back on an hoping it did not fail plus one less thing to break.

Then I got my hands on used manual rack. I put that in the car and found it to be there perfect compromise. The power rack had been a bi-ch in paddock. The manual rack was nice as the car was easy to manuver and still had the great feed back. Plus I was able to save a bit more weight since the rack it self is lighter and I coudl ditch the tank. (I ran fluid in the rack to keep the insides ok). Also ther was even less to fail now since I system was even simpler.

I have not considered putting my power system back in the car. I did however pickup and 83 944 for parts with a keen eye on the manual rack. While I am parting the 83 you'd have to buy the entire car to get rack as I plan on keeping that as I part things out.

Tie rods are more epensive on the manual rack, but are much easier to change. The power tie rods are threaded with deformed part to lock them down. The manual ones just use a jam nut. Makes changing them MUCH easier.

phils87951

my 42cents worth

I simply unhooked the pump & hoses from my power rack and put bolts where the banjos used to be.

pros
Great feed back

Cons
greater effort especiallt when the front tires are heavily loaded, tighter grip on wheel than you normaly would have, more fatigue. more effort, sometimes kicks back hard when hitting the turtles.
Honestly you probably loose some input smoothness by using the power rack unassisted.

after a year of driving it like that, Im 50/50 on keep it as is, I might put the PS back, might keep it that way im undecided

Eric_k

I've raced with all three setups on my 968: power, power unassisted and manual racks. Each one has its plus and minuses.

The power rack has decent feel and low effort, but has a pump, resv., belt and fluid that can leak and break.

I started using the power rack unassisted after the pump loosened itself and threw the belt. I was surprised how good it felt. You quickly adapt to the heavier feel and it is not too heavy at speed. The feedback is improved over the powered rack. I felt more in touch with what the front wheels were doing. You can also ditch the pump & resv to save weight. You also lose the belt which had been sucking a tiny bit of hp off the engine.

This summer I converted to a manual rack. The effort is much less than the non powered rack. After man handling the nonpowered rack, the manual rack feels light in comparison. At speed the feedback is about the same. You no longer need any PS plumbing and the rack itself is lighter. It is the simplest and lightest setup. My one complaint with it is the lower ratio. You really have to crank in more steering input. That takes a bit to get used to. There is a hairpin were I used to be able to crossover nicely but now I'm forced to shuffle steer.

I don't know if the difference in effort is just because of the different ratio or because the non-powered rack has other things going on that make it heavy. The perfect setup would a ratio the same or quicker than the power rack but with effort not more than the manual rack and with the feedback and simplicity of the manual rack. I don't think that exists?

Eric

shiners780

Excellent input Eric, thank you. And you're the first one to bring up the hp topic. I'm sure it's minimal, but anyone have any idea how much hp the PS system depletes? Just curious.

Chipster

Popular opinion is ~2hp

DER951

I converted my '86 951 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. Tires are 265-16 Victoracers on 9 inch clubsports all around. 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.

JasonAndreas

I've driven a 964C2 with non-functioning power steering and it is nothing at all like my 964RSA with a manual rack. Could people be confusing the two?

shiners780

It's possible, as I understand that the two offer much different feedback. The actual manual rack being much better than a drained power rack.

I thank everyone for their input. My manual rack, shaft, and tie rods are being ordered tomorrow. At its' current rate of leakage, my power system should be drained by the time the new parts arrive!