manual power steering

[johnl]

Just take the belt off. This is what I've done with my steering (CB7, of course), and there are no detectable 'reverse pumping' loads. If you jack your front wheels off the ground (both), and with the engine not running, turn the steering quickly one way then the other without encountering any significant hydraulic resistance, then simply taking the belt off will be fine.

Bonus, noticably improved fuel economy. My last hwy trip driving as if I were a sane person saw 5.8 litres per 100km (40.6MPG, US gallons), down from 6.6 litres per 100km on the previous trip with PS working.

Bad news, because the steering is power steering it has a 'spool valve' (between the pinion and steering input shaft) that senses the direction of steering input and apportions assist accordingly, and when assist is removed this spool valve is more free to move a few degrees. This results in some loss of directness when the steering is only lightly loaded. This is not severe but is noticable, but I still prefer the unboosted steering feel despite it.

If you're really serious you can dismantle the steering rack and weld the spool valve so that it can't move at all, in which case the rack will be for all intents and purposes the same as a 'proper' manual rack of the same ratio.

[tootall]

thanks i appreciate it

[ibr_adam09]

i haven't had no power steering for about 1 yr now with the original rack and pinion , its still in great shape, the whole thing is dry too , i dont even have the ps lines and they are not plugged up

[tootall]

Thank you, thats the answer ive been looking to for, i want all of the power steering lines off of it completely, and i was afraid the steering rack and pinion would mess up quick, is your 2 lines that go into the transmission still connected.

also, is it real hard to steer, im still taking it off but they say its harder to steer than a manual rack.

[ibr_adam09]

all my lines are gone, my ps is non existent

i never had experience with manual rack

its overall a 7/ 10 for me driving w/o ps

at hwy speeds, its great for control over the car

the only thing thats kinda but not necessary bothering to me are turns at slow speeds, i find doing a u turn is the hardest


everything else is easy cheesy

[woopwooph22]

all my lines are gone, my ps is non existent

i never had experience with manual rack

its overall a 7/ 10 for me driving w/o ps

at hwy speeds, its great for control over the car

the only thing thats kinda but not necessary bothering to me are turns at slow speeds, i find doing a u turn is the hardest


everything else is easy cheesy

i find u turns not all that bad because the car will straighten itself out pretty good

[ibr_adam09]

i find u turns not all that bad because the car will straighten itself out pretty good

yes it does , its the initial turn that bothering

[tootall]

just curious ,why did you take out your power steering

[AbsurdNY]

I would leave the power steering in on a street car and this is why. If you loop the lines or not, taking out the power steering still puts on a lot of strain.

On a power steering rack, the power is applied here:


All the force is applied to the rack itself and a little bit to where the pinion gear is.


If you use the power rack as a manual rack, the power is applied here:


The force is applied to the rack with nothing to help it out putting stress on the entire steering column. Now the question is, is a steering column in a power system designed to take the stress that a manual steering column incurs?

[johnl]

Now the question is, is a steering column in a power system designed to take the stress that a manual steering column incurs?

The design and construction of the steering column will in all probability be identical regardless of whether the steering is power assisted or not. Even in the unlikely event that there is some slight difference (why go to the trouble of designing / manufacturing different steering columns?), it will be not a difference that will affect the torsional strength of the column shafts (maybe a slight column shaft length difference or maybe in spline detail if the pinion splines are not identical between the different steering racks, which would be very unlikely I think).

Keep in mind that the engineers will need to ensure that the steering column is more than strong enough to easily cope with any foreseeable forces in any foreseeable circumstance, including (e.g.) hitting a large pothole at speed while the PS is not functioning due to (e.g.) belt failure (etc).

The steering column shafts / joints, the pinion shaft / pinion teeth etc will all be very strong, certainly not so weak that even a strong human could exert enough force to break them (or even cause metal fatigue over time).

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A PS rack with the PS disabled will be heavier to steer than a purpose designed manual rack because the PS rack has less leverage, i.e. fewer turns lock to lock. Therefore, the a 'converted' PS rack gives a more direct steering than the manual rack at the expense of heavier steering.

Some people will find the increased steering weight objectionable, others will find it an acceptable compromise. Some people will be physically unable to park the car...

My CB7 has disabled PS, and it also has 6° of caster, so steering should be significantly heavier than it would be with disabled PS at the stock caster (which is about 2° to 3°, but I haven't actually driven it with PS disabled at the stock caster angle).

Even with my steering wheel abput 6cm closer to the driver than stock, I find the steering quite heavy in tighter corners, very heavy in the parking lot, but 'just right' in faster more open corners.

Simplistically, if my steering wheel needs to be turned more than 90° then I find it's getting quite heavy, but under 90° it's reasonable. I'd rather the steering were lighter at parking speeds and in tighter corners, but for me the trade off is more than acceptable, for others it won't be, but you won't know until you try (the experiment is to take the belt off, it's easy to put back on if you don't like it).

With stock caster the steering should be lighter than mine is. Note that the steering will probably get heavier the more worn the tyres become, the wider the tyres are, and lower the tyre psi. Some tyres will steer more heavily than others. None of these things make enough difference to steering weight be of much concern with PS, but can without PS.

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It's a bad idea for any part of the rack to be left open because dirt will enter and turn to grinding paste in whatever is left of the PS fluid, and water will cause corrosion. It might take some time, but in the end you'll wish you hadn't left those orifices open...

The rack should not be run dry, if so then it's just a matter of how long it takes for significant wear to occur on the rack and pinion teeth.

Loads on the pinion and rack gear teeth are substantially greater with manual racks (and 'converted' PS racks) than with PS racks, i.e. contact forces on the surfaces of the gear teeth are much greater with manual racks (and more so the 'faster' the rack is, so PS racks with the PS disabled have the highest forces on the gear teeth).

So, with manual racks and converted PS racks it's important that the gear surfaces are well lubricated. This can be done by ensuring that the rack is still filled with PS fluid (making sure that fluid can move freely from one side of the piston to the other), or the rack can be dissasembled and re-assembled with grease.

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I've heard people say that disabling the PS causes greater tie-rod-end and rack-end wear, which is of course incorrect because the forces seen at these points are always the same regardless of the steering system, assisted or not.

[tootall]

thanks for the detailed info. nice

[91lxaccordkidd]

i would suggest packing it with grease because i have all my lines off and now i have about 2 inches of play, it goes back and forth on the interstate, very dangerous. but i have another one and im going to pach it with grease and its not that hard to steer. (unless you are a skinny/ weak person.. lol)

[Trommelfelson]

I have a 91' LX coupe.

about 6months ago my alternator belt started to wear and frey (sp?) little peices of the belt wore a hole in a power steering line on my car. I couldn't figure out which line it was in order to get a new one from advanced so I took the belt off of my pump. my system has been dry for months. would this possibly mess up my rack and pinion?

[Trommelfelson]

I have a 91' LX coupe.

about 6months ago my alternator belt started to wear and frey (sp?) little peices of the belt wore a hole in a power steering line on my car. I couldn't figure out which line it was in order to get a new one from advanced so I took the belt off of my pump. my system has been dry for months. would this possibly mess up my rack and pinion?

[johnl]

^ It would depend on how much fluid was pumped out. I'd imagine that some fluid would be left, and the rack is the lowest part of the system so the remaining fluid should sink down into the rack. But I can't say for sure.

How full is the reseviour?