mmaki

Like I just mentioned in another post, it is time for me to work on my suspension. The car is manual steering right now which really doesn't appeal to me. Especially with a big block.

I've searched here and it seems most don't like the power steering and many are taking it off, complaining of looseness, lack of road feel, bump steer, etc.

My question is, why would the type of power steering in these cars affect any of that? From looking at the drawings it seems the power steering is simply a add on device consisting of a control valve and a ram (and the parts required to make it work). The mechanical connection from the steering box to the center arm is still maintained so I don't see why it should get any looser at all? Jut easier. In fact, I would have thought that with the faster rartio PS box it would make it tighter.

Or what am I missing?

Mike

Starfury

The problem is that the system sucks for steering feedback. Like you said, it uses that big overpowered assist ram with a control valve instead of an integral power steering box. Steering feedback gets transferred into the control valve and ram rather than to the steering wheel. The result is a 'dead' wheel that you can turn with one finger. Most people that like performance driving are going to have problems with that.

There shouldn't be much slack in the system. The weak spot, IMO, is the control valve that connects to the pitman. It's a little sloppy, or at least all of the ones I've seen have been. Not horrible, but it's just one more place to create looseness in the steering.

With a well-functioning OE p/s system, you'll still have minimal steering play, but you'll also have no steering feedback in the wheel.

Other options are power rack and pinion steering, which provides excellent feedback if the right rack is used, or an integral p/s box. Someone posted one designed for early mustangs a week or so ago, if you can find that post, or you could try to fab a non-Mustang box in.

urban_cowboy

I have looked for an integrated PS box, with little luck. I missed the post you are talking about, so I will search too. Someone dropped in an integrated PS box?

From my perspective, manual steering is ok on the road, but if you drive in town much it really sucks. I have opted to keep the OEM PS on my car and just deal with the little bit of slack. The feed back is an issue, but you know if you take a corner fast enough, you do get some feedback because the pump starts cutting out. Ask me how I know .

Starfury

This thread.

Pansy:P hehe.

I drive my 5-turn m/s car in town all the time. Parallel parking is interesting sometimes, but otherwise it's fine. I even have a 4-turn box that I'm going to swap in at some point so I don't have to keep cranking on the wheel so much. That's the biggest problem I have.

urban_cowboy

When I purchased my car it has been converted from PS to MS. I drove it straight to a conference where I had to park in three story parking garage. It almost killed me...no thx .

Thanks for the link Starfury. Man that looks promising, but no z-bar...damn. I wonder if you could fab something up to work?

Starfury

I don't like parking garages ><