switching to manual steering?

[Stang2Man]

Has anyone else done this? Does anyone make a belt re-routing system to eliminate the power steering pump? If you have done this on your cars, would you recommend it for a daily driver? I'm wanting to drive my 92 more since Expedition is such a gas hog.

 

[canesstangnitro]

Yea. this is a common thing to do. Do you still have your ac compressor on the car? The best thing to do is get a manual rack and tie a string around the things that you are running the belt on, and go to the parts store, get the size of the string, one size bigger, and one size smaller. When you find the one that fits, return the other 2 belts. that saves you 4 trips to the store

 

[Stang2Man]

Yeah I still have AC on the car, Plan on keeping too as summer's in the midsouth ain't much especially since I'm originally from Ohio where summer's are much more mild.
As for daily driveability how has yours been affected? Is it that bad to drive everyday, my wife's 65 drives great but the steering wheel is a larger diameter which counteracts the lack of power. I just want to make sure it's gonna be just as responsive as it is with the power rack.

 

[clayschmuck]

I have the flaming river manual rack on my car and it really cleans up the engine compartment and removes 33 lbs from the front end. As for drivability, don't try to drink a cup of coffee and steer around a parking lot! It would work great if you were running skinnies on the front end however, when you have wide front tires, it makes slow manuevering rather difficult! Anyway, they work and look great...except for that little thing about steering in parking lots!

Clay

 

[Stang2Man]

I'm really not too worried bout the parking lot driving, especially since 5.0's have the built in cup holders right by the e-brake. Like I said just general daily driving nothing too hard the occasional country back road that winds just a little bit. I've just been neglecting this car for too long and it still runs like a bat out of hell just like when I bought it about 30k miles ago and 7 yrs. Has anybody that you all know of went with the Summit brand manual racks or even dare I say it Autozones Stuff?

 

[clayschmuck]

Sigh....I was not aware that summit made one!! Well crap...honestly, their stuff isn't too bad...however, I ebay'd my rack!

Clay

 

[88mouse]

You can get a manual rack for a 79-83 car at any of the local parts stores.

 

[canesstangnitro]

I have always wanted to go with the best brands on parts for my car. So when I went to a manual rack, I used flaming river. I figure that if you are going to go with no ps, you want a well made rack. Even my mechanic noticed how welll built it was