Power Steering is awful, I just want it gone!

[chapstickaddict]

Hi all, I tried searching on the subject but didn't find anything that fit my situation well.

So I purchased my '92 GS this weekend, and the previous owner told me the car didn't have power steering. "Okay," I think to myself "That's fine. My SO's car has the power steering taken out and I drive that without a problem."

It isn't fine. Whereas SO's Del Sol is kind of a pain to turn while moving slowly, I feel as if my MX-3 is actively fighting everything I'm trying to do. I can get places, sure, and I'm thankful for that, but it sure is making turning and shifting near impossible. I'm having to two-hand-haul myself around corners and even slight maneuvering sucks a whole lot. This is where I'm stuck.

It seems like the P/S pump is still attempting to do things and failing horribly? From time to time I feel like the steering wheel is slightly less horrible to turn, but it's intermittent and I can't quite tell if it's consistent. There is some belt squeal-age coming from that general direction, but honestly I exactly tell what's going on over there. Has anyone just disabled the system entirely? If so, how did you go about it? I see the manual page about installing/removing the P/S pump, but I believe that there is more to it than just removing the pump . Any assistance would be much appreciated.

[mitmaks]

To remove it you would have to swap steering rack from non p/s car. It's a lot of work. I would try to fix p/s on your car, makes driving it more easy and turning in parking lots, etc is not a pita.
Check p/s fluid is it full? Maybe flush it out and fill with new fluid. I find that ATF works better than p/s fluid on our cars. Might have to swap out p/s pump if your old one is bad.

[chapstickaddict]

That *does* sound like an enormous pita. :/
Is there any reason you can't just loop the steering rack, like just bypassing the pump entirely? I'm friends with various car mods folk and I know some of them have managed it on their (albeit non mx3) vehicles.

I did put some ATX fluid in there, it improved a tiny bit. Not much, though. I imagine the pump is bad; it looks like the previous owner was just driving around with no fluid and I think the poor pump has just been running dry the whole time. I'm rather new to the whole "working on cars" thing myself, but I imagine that isn't good for anything. I'll start pricing out pumps, though. Thanks!

[mitmaks]

Maybe you can get someone to swap it out for you then. Check on Rockauto.com or maybe even ebay.

[RobMinhas]

There is a method to depowering the rack that involves looping it and removing a valve. From what I hear it's really f---ing hard to turn then though.


Mazda 323 rack is manual and is a direct fit with GS tie rod ends, just an idea.

PS is great though, love that s---.

[kulluminati777]

Yeah I never realized how much I LOOOOVE PS lol. I went a year or so with a burnt out power steering pump (was lazy). I HATED IT. The biggest problems I had was parking. It wouldnt matter how easy the spot was to get into. It would take me 8 turns backing in and out to straighten the car out because I couldnt turn the wheel fast enough. I got pretty buff during that time. I would just buy a new unit and forget about it.

Low on cash? Not auto savy? Go to the pick and pull...find a MX3, MX6, millenia or a ford probe any of which with a V6 and experiment taking it off that way you know how to put it on your car. Takes not even an hour or two to remove and install a pump.

[chapstickaddict]

Yeah, I don't particularly care at this point what makes the car easier to drive, as long as it is. I'm not sure we have pick and pulls up here? I live in the biggest city but we have basically nothing up here. Makes me miss downstate. Guess it's the internet g for me!

[Tavman_1213]

Hahaha I think it's funny that everyone thinks no power steering is so hard to park and turn! I have a 323 manual rack in my car with 215s and it isn't that bad! Yes you have to learn that it takes more turns of the steering wheel but with a new protege steering wheel it is no problem at all! But that is just my 2 cents because it comes down to whatever you want to do to your car!

[RobMinhas]

You're also six foot a bunch and a fire fighter Tav, not all of us have baby saving mitts to turn the wheel with haha.

[chapstickaddict]

Well, I thought I was totally fine without power steering! SO's car has the system looped, I guess, so you know it was kind of annoying at a slow turn/stop or something but I did just fine. But this is just GONE GONE GONE and I'm a 5'2" girl with very little upper body strength and driving my car is like a constant battle. I made it across the entire UP and around town the day I got it. I mean, I can *drive* it but between the power steering battle and the super wiggly shifter it makes turns (and turning and shifting) a serious pain in my rear.

Small update: We but some ATX fluid in it and left it in the garage overnight to see what happened. The next morning, the ATX fluid was everyyyyyywhere. Poking around, it seems to be coming from what appears to be the power steering cooling line? It's all rusted out on the driver's side of it and it is just soaked in fluid. I haven't had much of a chance to grab photos but I will try to tonight and post them. I wasn't anywhere near a keyboard when working on it.

I tried searching for that piece of pipe online but drew very few (like, none) results for the 6 cylinder engine.
So is there a better search term for this part so I can find it? Or is the 4 cylinder one adequate? Can I just use any 'ol pipe loop until I can find the correct part? SO has a similar piece lying around the garage; it's just not nearly as long. If this is the cause of the leak, it seems like I could just get a new one/put something there and maybe my problems are solved.

EDIT: Took some photos of this part. I checked my manual and couldn't find any mention of it within the power steering sections. Am I just looking at something completely unrelated?

You can see on the right where it's wet with fluid. The puddle underneath was pink, so ATX, not oil.


A more straight-on angle:

[davmac]

You can bypass the hard pipe section that is leaking up front. Just connect the 2 hoses that currently connect to the leaking pipe together with a barbed hose connector or get a single hose to connect from the reservoir to the hard line near the reservoir. Just bypass the cooler pipe don't bypass the pump / reservoir. I would do so just to see if the power steering works. Maybe this was the only reason you had no power steering - you would be very lucky.

ATF fluid is the recommended power steering fluid.

Warning: It will be a mess to do the bypass. You can try to empty the reservoir with a turkey baster or hand pump, but lots will still come out the bottom of the reservoir when you disconnect the hose. Be ready to catch or contain the ATF that will come out while you do this repair.

Long term you could probably run with the bypass in place. If you want to get fancy you could replace that pipe with an aftermarket transmission cooler.

You have a power steering rack. If the pump is NOT moving fluid then it is harder to steer compared to a manual steering rack. If you had a manual steering rack it would not be too bad.

[chapstickaddict]

Awesome! Thanks for the informative reply. I'll try to bypass that loop and hopefully it was the problem. That would really make my life a lot easier.

[MrMazda92]

If you have the time and inclination, as well as another reliable car for daily use... You may want to take a look at this:
http://mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=80521

Best work I've ever done. I like it even more than power>manual seatbelts...