I drove my V8 manual steering 66 over 20 years with manual steering.

 

My '71 that I had as a teenager with a Big Block had manual steering and it was a little harder to steer, but nothing a little extra muscle couldn't hurt.
Our '65 will be manual steering, I don't feel the need to spend the extra $$$ for the power steering.
Lynn

 

All good stuff.. Does anyone have a rough diagram of the steering assembly for the crsp conversion ... I will get the front sump oil pan and feeder tube of course .. why are the outer tie rods so long?? I don't get that

 

The long ones go on the inside. the short ones go on the outside. Don't plan on running really fat tires on the front with no power steering. Manual steering and fat tires are a bad mix.

 

ya. the long ones are the inner ones.
on the 6cylinder steering the inner rods attach on the end of the centerlink
On the 8cylinder steering the inner rods attach more to the center of the centerlink. That's why they are longer.
when you assemble it, at some stage you will be putting the inner and outer in the clamp. I found it helped me massively when I turned the inner and outer into the shaft the same amount of turns. Start with 25 turns for the inner (into the clamp) and 25 turns for the outer (into the clamp). on both sides. make sure your steering wheel is dead center (obviously in middle position, not one turn to left or right). then turn the wheels by hand so the outer tierod just pops in. then check on the car. you should have the wheels toeing in about 1/8". so measure the distance between the front half of front wheels and that distance should be 1/8" longer on the rear half of the wheels.
Only ever adjust both tierods the same. if you make the left longer by one turn do the same to the right. This way I got my toe in alignment pretty decent with steering wheel straight. of course you should go for alignment. but that setting helps bring you there.