Manual steering swap combo!

[MrMazda92]

People managed to race manual steering cars for a great many years. Many more people drove/currently drive them on the street...

When I was driving an early 90s Tercel with manual steering, it was a cakewalk. The damn thing took MAYBE 20% more effort than my MX-3 with power steering, and only when completely stopped.

Even the Civic I have been borrowing is fine at speed... Parked is a 2 hand affair, but I definitely have no issues when it's moving. The biggest time I find it a PITA, is when making a 3 point turn because I don't have enough room for a true U-turn, and only if other cars are coming... Which is a poor timing issue on my part anyways.

If I can maintain the same # of turns lock to lock, I'll go manual. It's low on the priority list, but if I can find the right rack I'll do it when I swap.

Along with poly bushings, filled motor mounts, and the countless other things I'm already doing at the same time...

[kulluminati777]

Im sure with a manual rack its ok to DD. Im sure not alot of people like it thats why i bet there is only a hand full of cars that have it. I was refering to no PS at all. With the combo of a smaller wheel and no PS I had to use 2 hands just to get into any park spot in germany. Maybe the states will be different for DD. Here you can get in to a spot while still rolling. So maybe its bareable. As far as an actual track or autoX situation I dont think you have had to transition or counter steer fast enough for you to notice yet...... Even the most experienced drivers would be worn out in a few laps.

[Josh]

There is no right or wrong answer, it is driver preference mostly. there is a thread somewhere that was closed due to an argument on this topic. a friend of mine works on a couple F1 teams and as he told me some cars have PS others do not, it is the car and driver preference. I prefer PS over manual at lower speeds or cornering like Auto X, but at higher speeds or driving in a straight line it is far better to have manual rack. That is why they developed progressive steering allowing you to have the best of both worlds.

[300zxrb26dett]

Oh Josh, I was going to mention, I dont think you would want to retrofit electric P/S to your car. It might be nice to program steering feel, but when the system has a fault which is inevitable, the system is way harder to turn then a dead hydraulic system. Some cars give no warning that there is a fault and the driver does not know it till the first time they slow down to turn or make a quick transition. The system needs far more work before I would ever consider it a good idea to retrofit.

[Josh]

Sorry I should clarify, when I say electric, I am referring to electric hydraulic system not a full electric rack like in the RX8. Electric hydraulic pump vs the belt driven pump

[MrMazda92]

I did forget that many use a smaller wheel as well... I'm 100% dead set on a stock sized wheel. Smaller would drive me insane, without a doubt. As it is, I can barely steer with my knees when the tilt is adjusted to the point that my vision of the gauge cluster is not obscured!! I may even prefer a larger wheel, for that matter.