Opinions on Power steering
 

I know some of you are running your cars without PS not because your car didnt come with it but because you removed your pump and drained and plugged the rack. I'm considering doing this but I wanted to hear some feedback first. I'm not going on the track, just on the street, do you guys like it on the street. Im sure its tight in parking lots, but otherwise? highway speeds ect...

Many people on here say it's the best mod they've done to their Miata. I'm going to do it in a couple days.

It's usually well received by the people that do it. The only gripe i hear is that they hate parking when rolling less than 5mph.

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/sho...hlight=depower
https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/sho...hlight=depower

It took a couple hundred miles to get used to, but I like it. It's really only annoying in parking lots or parallel parking, but not that bad once you're used to it, plus it makes you feel tough if you let other people drive it and they complain about how hard the steering is.

I've forgotten what power steering was like if that's any indication of how little I miss it. Feedback from the front wheels is nice. You can feel how much grip your front tires have now.

If i didnt track my car i most likely would have kept my PS in. But as everyone says its only a PITA when moving slow. When i get into a car that has PS i almost feel weird now because the steering is so light.

I too keep thinking about doing this as well as removing my AC. I've used my AC maybe 5 time in 6 years, but it sure has been nice when I have used it. Removing both provides an unbelievable amount of space in the engine bay.

My old heavy tank 340 Cuda had manual steering, if I could handle that, I could surely handle it in a Miata.

i LOVE my depowered rack, just makes the car "feel" better. as long as your moving at all, its fine.

I am considering removing the PS pump as well for the reasons above. Better feedback, more space. No way I will take out the A/C since that is a masochistic exercise in South Texas. That means I'll need the adjuster pulley for the belt or I would have done it already.

It seems like the next big decision is to loop the hydraulic hoses versus 'depowering' the rack. The depowering procedure is here:
http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php
Personally I'd try the loop and see if I can live with it or not.

I have had cars of similar weight and wheelbase before with no PS and it was fine.

This is my first manual steering car. ive had the p/s miata since 1995, and ive only driven p/s cars.

the new miata ive drove to work and back for the last week. I had to take my prelude out to run errands after work. I almost thought something was wrong because I couldn't feel the ground.

The extra effort is easy to get used to. i still have yet to see how i like it in competition, but im betting ill love it.

Whatever you do, don't simply cut the PS belt off. That shit sucks.

When I put my blower on a couple of years ago, I pulled the AC. After a while, the PS belt kept slipping and I couldn't access the pump bolts too well, as the blower was in the way. Eventually, I had enough of the belt squeal and intermittent power assist, so I cut the bitch off one day while I was driving around.

Moving that fluid around is horrible, and the parking lots were a nightmare. A couple years later I finally have the PS back in action.

I wouldn't own a miata with power steering.

the width of the tire you want to use might be a factor as well.. 195-45-15 T1R without PS would be different than 245-50-15 Hoosier R6.

i love my power steering couldnt live without it :D

I've driven NA's with power, with a factory manual, with rack depowered by line looping, and another with the rack disassembled and rebuilt FM style. The factory manual is awesome. love it. The looped one I hated. Way too stiff at slow speeds, and I was already used to the factory manual so my arms weren't being girly about it. The FM style one I did myself and I liked it better than looped but it was nowhere near as good as a factory manual. It was way too light at highway speed. I don't love the PS but it improves quite a lot when you have a stiff suspension, sways, and good wheels/tires. The 100% stock miata is way too light and floaty in the steering. my preference:

1. factory manual
2. PS with aftermarket suspension
3. FM style depower
4. looped lines
5. factory PS and suspension

I realllly want to try some of the 949racing steering bushings. Someone try them please. Hell, maybe I will.

I've had both a manual rack and a PS rack (with the pump enabled). Both have their pros and cons to me. Here's my opinion...

MANUAL RACK
Pros:

• Feel of the road; great feedback when at speed (the more speed, the more this is helpful)
• Less cumbersome and I think even less weight than PS, not sure how much

Cons:

• Lower turning ratio of the steering rack gear; it's harder to whip the car around a tight turn as you have to turn the steering wheel a little more. This sounds a little trivial, but to me it's noticeable.
• Effort at low, parking lot speeds. This isn't really that bad. It's just at very low speeds.

POWER STEERING RACK
Pros:

• Quicker turn-in. Very nimble feeling. Note that for autocrossing, this is a plus. Quicker zip through the cones. Should I say "video-game-like?"
• Less effort at parking lot speeds, drive thru's, neighborhoods, etc...

Cons:

• Less feel of the road once speed increases. Evident at highway speeds, and track events.
• A little more weight and bulkier rack. This causes more clearance issues for custom mods.

If Mazda had created a manual rack w/ the quicker turning ratio of a PS rack, that would be great for motorsports and general spirited driving. However, the wider your tires are, the more the scrub you'll have when turning so a PS rack favors fat tires for driver ease. Same applies to front end weight. I'm in the middle of a V8 conversion on my miata now and am going to plan on PS but there is a chance I'll de-power my PS rack and enjoy it from there.

wow thanks guys, great feedback.

im considering doing this myself, the car i drove for the first 3 years of my driving career was a 1962 Jaguar E type, manual steering with a smaller wheel, 300hp engine and the clutch took 90lbs to depress it, it was awesome because noone could drive the car, i LOVED having manual steering and i couldnt tell the difference (complaints about parking lots) within reason at low speeds, and i agree much MUCH more feedback on the track, i track my miata and it feels like i could use a little more road feel then i have so im debating depower, but im running wide tires... all in all, if your just going to be driving on the street, and your not very strong physically, dont do it. esp if you live in a city, if you are are like many people and get it on the track, youll never get off and its a great idea to do this mod.

I've had a Miata with PS, with a depowered rack, and with manual steering.
I love how it feels manual, but miss the quicker ratio. However, parking is not a problem at all with the manual steering ratio. :D

Same here, manual rack makes parking lots a non issue, even with 225/45-15 RS2s. Quicker ratio may be nice. I don't think the quicker ratio is needed for open track duty, perhaps autocross.

I drove a miata with both PS and without. I noticed no difference except the steering ratio and a slight increase in turning effort, but it was by no means monumental. I prefer the car with PS. Keep in mind the car without PS had the factory manual rack and the skinny 14 inch tires as well.

Yes this is an old thread but people always ask about power steering removal so I will give my 2 cents:

-I recently removed my a/c and decided to go without ps for a while with the pump still in place. This makes parking lot speeds tough, but I lived with it for a week. Anything above 10-15mph is fine, but effort is noticeably greater below that. My 90lb girlfriend could handle it when she tried.

-I then decided to take out the 2 hoses FM says to plug, and see how that was. I planned on leaving all the ps stuff in there incase I didnt like it I could quickly go back, but as soon as I turned the wheel to get some of the fluid out, I immediately decided to gut everything else out because there was that little resistance.

-Car is now awesome, and any car with PS feels like an old arcade racing game like hot pursuit. Gives me confidence in corners as I can feel everything going on up front. Effort is only significantly heavier at 0mph. It's sooooooo niiiiiice. This is how all miatas should be.

-I think leaving the pump in for a week helped, possibly getting me more accostomed to the effort.

-I havn't looped the other 2 lines, and I dont intend to unless I get bored.

-I regularly parallel park, and this was not a problem even with the pump in place.

-my sperm count has doubled and I bench more since the PS removal, and my engine bay is now ready for ABSURDFLOW

Can you put the gubbins from the depowered rack into the skinnier manual rack?
yep ur right cant be arsed with technical talk

It wouldn't be worth the effort if you could, paulsub.

FWIW I love my looped-lines PS rack. I can feel the front tires losing grip if they do and feedback is much, much improved.

Only the wimpiest of guys should have any complaints about increased effort. My car runs almost max caster and 225s, and it's no problem at all.

The PS pump and lines weigh a bit (what, like, 35 pounds?) and when I was autocrossing with PS the pump was having trouble keeping up.

Interesting question... That would be nice in order to have the compactness of the manual rack but the ratio of the PS rack. At the very least the piston would have to come off of the PS rack but that is good depower procedure anyway.

If it's a longer ratio, wouldn't that mean the pinion is smaller? I doubt the larger PS gearing would fit. I'm incredibly knowledgeable about gears, but beyond tearing apart my rack to take the seal out, I have no experience with rack and pinions.

already done the full de power was thinking for the compactness of the manual rack gotta be a bit lighter use rack and pinion from the power bung it in the manuals body