Anyone put manual steering rack from protege in mx3

MechaManZero · Post by **MechaManZero** » June 18th, 2006, 11:37 pm

I am going to manual steering. anyone do this swap at all?

atlantamx3 · Post by **atlantamx3** » June 18th, 2006, 11:42 pm

Disconnect your power-steering belt... and VIOLA! You no longer have power assisted steering.

Although I am not quite sure WHY you would want to do that... besides just building up those arm muscles or something.

I am pretty sure the MX-3 had the better steering rack/steering ratio. No need to change over to the Protege one.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » June 19th, 2006, 1:28 am

The reason that he would do that is b/c the Protoge one is built to be manual and the MX isn't. Thus the Protoge one will be a tad easier to turn the wheel when not moving and it saves the drag on the motor.
I haven't heard of anyone doing the swap, but it sounds feasable. LEt us know how it does. The rack is a pain in the butt to get out and back in with the motor in there (on the V6 at least)

cjthor · Post by **cjthor** » June 19th, 2006, 1:45 am

I just took the pump and reservoir out. Cut the hose and looped it. I needed to take the pump out to make room for turbo exhaust. We will see how bad it really is with no power.

torpedan · Post by **torpedan** » June 20th, 2006, 12:36 am

cjthor wrote:I just took the pump and reservoir out. Cut the hose and looped it. I needed to take the pump out to make room for turbo exhaust. We will see how bad it really is with no power.

As long as your running the stock sized steeringwheel its not to bad, I had a 300mm one though and it was a nightmare without it. Enough so that always ran with it.

If your really big into reducing the drag on the motor get an underdrive pully and a lightweight flywheel. P/S can save your hide in the right situation.

MechaManZero · Post by **MechaManZero** » June 20th, 2006, 1:05 am

Yeah it is actually for a 3" downpipe

so yeah. No pump. I kinda need to make room for that cause 3 inches is pretty dang big.

cjthor · Post by **cjthor** » June 20th, 2006, 1:44 am

MechaManZero wrote:Yeah it is actually for a 3" downpipe so yeah. No pump. I kinda need to make room for that cause 3 inches is pretty dang big.

Thats why I moved mine.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » June 20th, 2006, 2:36 am

your stering rack will go out a heck of alot faster if you just remove the pump, or disconnect the belt. as its not made to run like that. its best to do it rite. i was going to look into the 323 manual rack, but have other projects going on rite now.

cjthor · Post by **cjthor** » June 20th, 2006, 12:16 pm

Josh wrote:your stering rack will go out a heck of alot faster if you just remove the pump, or disconnect the belt. as its not made to run like that. its best to do it rite. i was going to look into the 323 manual rack, but have other projects going on rite now.

You do have to pull the motor to change racks right?

ryanlindenberg · Post by **ryanlindenberg** » June 20th, 2006, 12:24 pm

cjthor wrote:
Josh wrote:your stering rack will go out a heck of alot faster if you just remove the pump, or disconnect the belt. as its not made to run like that. its best to do it rite. i was going to look into the 323 manual rack, but have other projects going on rite now.
You do have to pull the motor to change racks right?

I haven't heard of anyone doing the swap, but it sounds feasable. LEt us know how it does. The rack is a pain in the butt to get out and back in with the motor in there (on the V6 at least)

MechaManZero · Post by **MechaManZero** » June 20th, 2006, 12:30 pm

Umm yeah my motor is already out Kind of in the middle of the swap

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » June 20th, 2006, 1:40 pm

Then it is easy to check and see if one will fit. I have done one on a V-6 and heard from another MOCA member that the 4 bangers are jsut as hard with the motor in. It can be done though. You have to twist and move, twist and pull on the rack to get it out with all the hard lines that poke off of it.

Realy evil when the rest of the car is such a joy to work on. I guess I won't complain too much, Mazda did a great job making most everything else easy to get to.

cjthor · Post by **cjthor** » June 20th, 2006, 1:48 pm

PATDIESEL wrote:Then it is easy to check and see if one will fit. I have done one on a V-6 and heard from another MOCA member that the 4 bangers are jsut as hard with the motor in. It can be done though. You have to twist and move, twist and pull on the rack to get it out with all the hard lines that poke off of it. Realy evil when the rest of the car is such a joy to work on. I guess I won't complain too much, Mazda did a great job making most everything else easy to get to.

Did our cars come with manual steering?

MechaManZero · Post by **MechaManZero** » June 20th, 2006, 1:50 pm

Yea lol. What I plan on doing if you guys haven't tried was to buy a protege rack and pinion from autozone match it up. If it doesn't bolt up I got a friend that welds so I can probably mach it up. If anyone else is doing what I am doing with a bigger downpipe I will give you guys the details.

cjthor · Post by **cjthor** » June 20th, 2006, 1:52 pm

MechaManZero wrote:Yea lol. What I plan on doing if you guys haven't tried was to buy a protege rack and pinion from autozone match it up. If it doesn't bolt up I got a friend that welds so I can probably mach it up. If anyone else is doing what I am doing with a bigger downpipe I will give you guys the details.

what year protege do you think they came on? The u pull it by me has like 8 or 9 proteges..