Power Steering Pump Blues.
 

My power steering pump kicked over about 6 months ago. It leaked to death, the rear seal on it went bad. I've heard that they are hard to deal with. Would anyone be up for a power steering pump lightening and rebuild service? I have the components drawn up, but haven't moved on it.

wat.

i bet you find most people who care about weight are willing to dump the pump and depower.

Are you serious? lol. You can find a used P/S pump cheap. Just replace it. If you blew a seal out of it, you were probably using the incorrect fluid. IE- "power steering fluid" instead of Dextron/Mercron II, II, IV, equivalent, etc.

Pat your such a hater :giggle: It was actually because I took it apart. The seal was in REALLY bad shape when I reassembled it. It took about no time after the reassembly for it to start leaking. The seal was literally FLAT. I gather back when it was formed for primordial ooze it was round.

Toss the PS pump.

PS is for pussies.

I drove a Miata with power steering a couple of weeks ago. It felt so phenomenally shitty. Depowered is the only way to go.

Its been so long since I've had mine, I can't remember what it felt like to have it, but my girlfriend complains everytime she has to borrow it. I also can't help but feel like I get slowed down rolling the steering wheel over in a quick transition. There is just a little bit of resistance there that isn't there with power steering.

I have a pump from a '93 if you want it, it was good when I took it out cause ps is indeed for pussies.

My 91 is manual, and the 92 is power. I drive the 91 every day, and when I get behind the wheel of the 92, it's way too light. Manual rack or a de-powered rack is the way to go.

KMag

I might try to depower it, and see how it turns out. Hopefully its an easier rotation with the lines looped. If I can get rid of the P/S I have to figure out a new tensioner assembly. Someone I seen through search found a tensioner from Mazda but its 150. Should I design a cheap one, or has someone already got there? (You don't know how much I was freaking out about that steel pulley being attached to my motor Yes... I was prepared to make a powersteering pump shaft out of a fresh bar of 7075 just so I could replace the press fit on steel pulley with an aluminum pulley. I know I'm sick.)

This the idler from Mazda, its $100.
Finish Line / Rosenthal Mazda Parts & Accessories :: Miata / MX-5 :: Engine :: Idler Pulley

If you are comparing the steering effort of a depowered looped line rack and a steering system that still has the pump in the circuit with no belt you really need to loop your lines pronto.
The pump creates a huge restrction when its not pumping fluid, its wayyyy easier with the lines looped.

I swear to god. You need to get a balancer/crankshaft/flywheel/clutch/pressure plate and weigh that. Maybe that will get your light weight OCD self to calm down. In the grand scheme of things, the differences are peanuts. Like trying to calculate how rolling threw the ruminants of a water puddle while cruising 53 mph will reduce rolling resistance and calculating how that affects your mileage. :bang:

Kidding.
Not.
But yeah, you're ---- about little shit. Go build me a trigger wheel setup or some traction bars. Or something that does something noticeable.

Oh yeah, I'll sell you my old P/S pump thats in great shape if you want it. It's off a '99 though.

Nah, I'm all up for less mass, I'll depower my rack tomorrow and see how it goes.

Pat,
Your other parts are coming, it just takes a minute. Generally I can design most stuff in a day, but getting my manufacturers online and motivated is a whole other matter.

I have TWO power steering pumps available... well one right now, but the other will be out of the car... this week sometime. They're both off of '91s.

How did you like the depowered rack travis? I like mine thus far.

I never got around to doing it. I haven't been driving the Miata lately its been too icy. My car is a death trap on water, driving it on ice is almost funny. I also have had about half the car taken apart for measuring this and that. I can't wait to try it though.

On a side note I took up designing a pulley delete that is cheap and doesn't weigh 10 pounds. As soon as I can get it in a CNC machine SOMEWHERE I'll have it out. Its funny how everyone says the economy is slowing down. The machine shops definitely must NOT be apart of that.

i know the supercharger guys need a tensioner pulley for the "no ps / no ac."

Haha yeah, my dad owns a machine shop and he has more work than he knows what to do with.

I need a 5/8" "union" threaded for a 1.6l front CLT sensor. Wanna make that for me.