[Bear45-70]

I have a 1990 EGT with power steering (why for God's sake) that refuses to stop leaking, regardless of a new hoses and pump. I saw somewhere that someone had a way to remove the power steering. So having had the search function fail me (regardless of whether it is me or the function) can anyone tell me where the thread is or how to do this?

 

[88ESCORTV6]

look im for sale section on TT.com Tempotopaz.com in for sale section there is one just posted yesterday.

 

[Bear45-70]

look im for sale section on TT.com Tempotopaz.com in for sale section there is one just posted yesterday.

I don't want to get parts for it, I want to get rid of it.

 

[88ESCORTV6]

well if you want to do it corecly you need this.

http://www.tempotopaz.com/main/index.ph ... highlight=

 

[Bear45-70]

I don't want to retrofit to manual. I want to know what I need to do to leave the power steering rack in place and delete the pump, etc and not have the power steering rack fail from lack of lube.

 

[crusher]

The ways a power steering pump and hoses can leak: The pump has a plastic reservoir that has a "o" ring on it. Sometimes the reservoir has to be taken off the old pump and put on the new one....... The hose that connects to the top of the pump has another "o" ring on it. This connection has a little bit of "play" in it ,resting mainly on the "o" ring. ......The upper hose of the pump that connects to the rack and pinion has to have a small teflon washer on it before it is connected to the steering gear. This washer may be hard to find. It is a little smaller than the threaded coupler it goes on, but it has to be threaded on, and tightened with only a few pounds of torque ..... The lower hose that connects to the plastic reservoir might have to be replaced because the hose loses flexibility, and the hose clamp can't be tightened enough. ... OR, I bought a brand new hose for mine, and it began leaking. I went to the junkyard and got an old hose, and now it doesn't leak..... wonder who made the new hose??? If you remove the pump, you may have to convert the steering gear to a manual unit, because they make both units for the car, it's either one or the other...

 

[Bear45-70]

I was a professional mechanic for a long time, I now how this stuff works and screws up. I have replaced the pump and hoses. That was a new pump too, not rebuilt and it still leaks. I'm tired of screwing around with it and want to just get rid of the power steering, the quickest and easiest way possible. I want this thing back on the road so I can play with it, hell I might even race it locally, but as it is now, it is useless.

 

[UnexplodedCow]

I had planned on doing a writeup over last summer about removing the inner pressure seals and repacking the power rack with grease to sort of make it a high ratio manual piece. Mostly the friction comes from the pressure seals in these units, so removing them will result in a much easier to turn wheel (almost as easy as manual). Retrofitting is about as hard, but requires more parts due to needing different mounting brackets and steering column drive shaft.

If it's leaking, I'd start checking the seals on the rack, as they may have gone bad...most commonly in the pinion housing. Or else the new pump is defective (have seen that happen before).

If you want the easiest way out for the time being, just remove the drive belt from the pump.

 

[Bear45-70]

The leaking is not from the rack, but somewhere up near the pump, where of course you can't see sh!t.

 

[crusher]

I had the same problem with leaking last year. I had to jack up the front of the car and put it on jackstands. Then went under to the power steering pump and wiped away the oil. Then put the car back on the ground. After it started to leak again, it was easy to see that the leak was coming from the top hose. That little o ring didn't hold up. it was a new hose. I went to the junkyard and bought another p/s pump with the hose already on it. It hasn't leaked yet. The remanufactured parts for this old car are really low quality.. The online auctions are the place the junk remanufactured parts and factory "non working units" are sold IMO, As well as the chinese CV joints where the spline joint slips into the wheel bearing housing without a press fit..

 

[Bear45-70]

I bought new hoses and pump from my local parts house. If I wanted rebuilt, I would do it myself.

 

[lorenz85]

I run a 1990 gt for a mini stock race car, I have the power rack still in the car, get rid of all your lines and bs, make sure that the fluid is down a bit in the rack for expansion and and get thread in plug caps, Its not that bad to turn when at a stop, I have had no problems for years and have not touched it.

 

[88ESCORTV6]

you need to by pass the hoses at the rack, connect the presur one to the return with clips and you are done. its the way I have done it to my race cars for years.

but I would not do it on a street car , its its not 100% safe.

Don't use plugs since you can have hydrolock and that is bad, with the hose from one side to the other it permits the oil to move from side to side and keep the rack lubed. get a belt for a car with no p/s

and your welcome.

 

[UnexplodedCow]

Yeah, it's better to circulate than cap...but it's even better to remove the inner seals, then everything can be capped, and it becomes a larger casing, higher-ratio unit. And they're not difficult to take apart. Like I said, I still need to do that writeup, and having a camera now will help.

 

[lorenz85]

This is true, but if your not running the pump there is no presser, the rack doesnt know the diff. All you did was lose the power assist. Though I did run it that way for a season and no matter what I did it would leak, I did think of that though, thats why I took most of the fluid out.

 

[Adran]

I had mine looped for a while, and it seemed inexplicably hard to turn at times. I've simply uncapped it and left the connections open, and now it feels really good to be honest. Maybe not the safest thing, but neither is careening into the bushes because you can't turn the wheel hard enough. It's still scarier than power steering any day.

I'll certainly go Cow's way though if he ever gets around to that writeup.

 

[UnexplodedCow]

Mostly I'm waiting on getting my garage cleaned out some, and organizing, then I can work on stripping the parts car and depowering its rack.

 

[VashSpiegel]

Has anyone successfully converted their P/S to manual? I got my remanufactured manual rack and pinion but I can't find the correct bushings for this thing. Is there a conversion kit to do this?

 

[UnexplodedCow]

Still no on my part...but my car's without a head on it at the moment, so I might take some time, pull the spare rack off the parts car, and actually do what's been needing to be done for the past year. It's the perfect time for me, anyway.

 

[Spiffy]

Well I've just connected the low side and high side lines. To date haven't had any problems with leaks or function. It's definitely less fun to turn than having P/S, but it's not TERRIBLE by any means.