07-13-2010, 01:02 PM
So a little background to this.
Bought my car maybe 5-6 months ago (seems like years) and among other issues, the power steering system was completely shot. pump worked but was leaking, EVERY rubber line was bloated and leaking, the rack at both ends was leaking, but the boots were good. The resevoir was cracked and leaking, the cap seal was bad and the subsequent fluid destroyed every bushing on the control arm and the sway bars. for some reason the passenger side tie rod was good...
so i was looking at a few options with my budget being a huge concern. i had just purchased M030 sways and koni sports so i was a little strapped. I knew the leak had to stop or all my pretty new bushings would become shot in short order. So the first thing i did was order rebuilt control arms and bought new castor blocks so I could start with a clean slate up front once the leak stopped. The options as I saw them were:
1) replace every component that was leaking. (everything) Well just lines went out of my budget... over 400 bucks. rack really wouldn't have been that bad, around 350 with a warranty and i could rebuild my pump and buy a new resevoir for 50 total... Overall waaaay too much for me to swallow right now...
2) Buy a proper manual setup from an early manual car. IF i could find one, i still had to buy manual tie rod ends AND somehow locate a good intermediate shaft (not rebuildable as i understand it, didn't go very far down that route.) it looks like the going rate for the rack was around 300 without tie rods. I also wasn't sure if i wanted to permanently have a manual setup.
3) yank everything out and just deal with the depowered rack until i gradually bought all of the required components to get it back to powered. (including a new rack which probably would have been destroyed over time without fluid.)
Well Im embarrased to say i went for door number three and yanked absolutely everything out. Once i had the rack out though i decided to look through the archives for the "proper" way to depower the rack. Ended up doing all of the recommended procedures (remove piston, grease EVERYTHING, replace springs in the valve with equal length rods, and cap all the ports.) cleaned it all up and put it all back together and it actually looked pretty good. Went ahead and replaced shocks, sways, and control arms at the same time and then went for an alignment. (sorry no pics)
My first impressions were that this SUCKS. I felt like i had ruined the car and i had to order new parts as soon i could to get the power back. Took the car back in for another alignment since the first one felt like it was pulling to the right (ended up being tires out of round) and the guy had messed with the castor(sp?) to compensate for the pull to the right. This basically made the car neutral and i realized that the horrible steering was just exacerbated by being out of alignment.
Bottom line is that the car is much more engaging to drive! Of course sitting still and trying to turn the wheel is a chore, but with any forward motion at all, its not that difficult. Im really enjoying the new setup and love the feedback. Freeway speeds (above 45), I can drive the car with one finger. (I guess because the powered system gives little assistance at those speeds.) The added bonus of no possibility of leaks is just icing on the cake. Now i haven't done any events but i did engage in some autocross style maneuvers in an empty parking lot and found that the setup actually has kept me from my old bad habits. Basically it trains you to brake THEN turn in a tight corner since the forces on the unassisted steering are so great while cornering.
So now my total outlay (apart from bushing etc that would have to have been replaced anyways) was $0 and I have no intention of going back to power. And btw im not a big guy. In fact, im a small guy, so for me to say that its easy to drive is really saying something! Now I just need to get my damn radio to work... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif[/img]
Bought my car maybe 5-6 months ago (seems like years) and among other issues, the power steering system was completely shot. pump worked but was leaking, EVERY rubber line was bloated and leaking, the rack at both ends was leaking, but the boots were good. The resevoir was cracked and leaking, the cap seal was bad and the subsequent fluid destroyed every bushing on the control arm and the sway bars. for some reason the passenger side tie rod was good...
so i was looking at a few options with my budget being a huge concern. i had just purchased M030 sways and koni sports so i was a little strapped. I knew the leak had to stop or all my pretty new bushings would become shot in short order. So the first thing i did was order rebuilt control arms and bought new castor blocks so I could start with a clean slate up front once the leak stopped. The options as I saw them were:
1) replace every component that was leaking. (everything) Well just lines went out of my budget... over 400 bucks. rack really wouldn't have been that bad, around 350 with a warranty and i could rebuild my pump and buy a new resevoir for 50 total... Overall waaaay too much for me to swallow right now...
2) Buy a proper manual setup from an early manual car. IF i could find one, i still had to buy manual tie rod ends AND somehow locate a good intermediate shaft (not rebuildable as i understand it, didn't go very far down that route.) it looks like the going rate for the rack was around 300 without tie rods. I also wasn't sure if i wanted to permanently have a manual setup.
3) yank everything out and just deal with the depowered rack until i gradually bought all of the required components to get it back to powered. (including a new rack which probably would have been destroyed over time without fluid.)
Well Im embarrased to say i went for door number three and yanked absolutely everything out. Once i had the rack out though i decided to look through the archives for the "proper" way to depower the rack. Ended up doing all of the recommended procedures (remove piston, grease EVERYTHING, replace springs in the valve with equal length rods, and cap all the ports.) cleaned it all up and put it all back together and it actually looked pretty good. Went ahead and replaced shocks, sways, and control arms at the same time and then went for an alignment. (sorry no pics)
My first impressions were that this SUCKS. I felt like i had ruined the car and i had to order new parts as soon i could to get the power back. Took the car back in for another alignment since the first one felt like it was pulling to the right (ended up being tires out of round) and the guy had messed with the castor(sp?) to compensate for the pull to the right. This basically made the car neutral and i realized that the horrible steering was just exacerbated by being out of alignment.
Bottom line is that the car is much more engaging to drive! Of course sitting still and trying to turn the wheel is a chore, but with any forward motion at all, its not that difficult. Im really enjoying the new setup and love the feedback. Freeway speeds (above 45), I can drive the car with one finger. (I guess because the powered system gives little assistance at those speeds.) The added bonus of no possibility of leaks is just icing on the cake. Now i haven't done any events but i did engage in some autocross style maneuvers in an empty parking lot and found that the setup actually has kept me from my old bad habits. Basically it trains you to brake THEN turn in a tight corner since the forces on the unassisted steering are so great while cornering.
So now my total outlay (apart from bushing etc that would have to have been replaced anyways) was $0 and I have no intention of going back to power. And btw im not a big guy. In fact, im a small guy, so for me to say that its easy to drive is really saying something! Now I just need to get my damn radio to work... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif[/img]
