Tips for depowering your rack
 

Make sure you have a solution to retain a/c functionality (not sure if you have ac to begin with) The cheapest option is to shim your ac compressor. Most expensive would be a custom made tensioner.

Make sure you have verbal or written conformation from a local welder that they agree to weld your steering pinion to your specifications. Also make sure this welder has a lathe with micrometer attachment, or some other method to ensure it is straight and low/zero runout after welding.

FYI it is illegal for a welder to weld any oem or other steering parts for a vehicle that sees public road use. Thats why you should make sure you have a welder.

Make sure you have a good day free to remove everything and take your time.

If you can clean your rack after disassembly have the welder also plug the holes in the rack. Ideal steering feel is obtained with decent amount of grease inside, OR steering fluid. Apparently using ps fluid in a depowered rack makes it even smoother than grease, at the cost of slightly less weight reduction.

Make sure your caster is not over 5. Mine was over 8 when I first depowered the rack. I hated it I would estimate steering effort at 40 pounds high speed tight corner. Now the caster is 4.5, and it honestly feels like power steering did, as far as effort went. Even in a parking lot, it is manageable. I am a huge wimp, legit weak, and love to complain about stuff. Parking is really not bad. At 8 caster, holy shit it was hard to park.

If your caster is already close to where you want it, you dont need an alignment if you remove the inner tie rods from the rack.

Take a picture (or a few) of the teeth of the rack poking out when the steering wheel is still attached and at its center. I didn't do any measuring, but I got the rack exactly centered this easy way.

If you do the no- alignment way, do yourself a favor and purchase the captive washers that prevent the inner tie rods from loosening. They are a huge PITA to hammer out of the way, and even harder to hammer back into place. Just get them, and cut off the other ones.

That's all I can think of to add onto FM's guide and this guys video
Oh, and seriously do it. There is no downside.

Perfect timing on this thread.

A discovery:
I learned that you can take apart the power steering pump and remove the pump vanes and the internal housing and it becomes a free tensioner. Just cap off the two orifices and fill with power steering fluid so it doesn't seize up.

A question:
I am doing the lazy loop and cap method (ie, loop the two connections on the rack, cap all the stuff on the pinion/valve area). I was thinking it would be a good idea to mostly drain the looped part so it's pretty much just air moving back and forth, but fill the pinion/valve assembly area with fluid or oil before I cap it. That way it would stay lubricated while I drive around. Or should I squeeze it full of grease or something?

Not sure about that one. i would guess that grease would make it more difficult to steer with, since it is more viscous.

I'm pretty lazy, and therefore when I finally get the car up on jackstands, I do the full job.

If you don't daily your car, looping is fine, but if you daily it, imo just do the full depower. The steering is really light, like really close to having power steering over 2mph.

Looping is easy and does not require removing the rack from the car. I'd honestly suggest doing the easy loop method first and seeing if you like it. That's what I did, and I'm happy with it. If, at that point, you decide you love it but want a bit lower effort, then go on and do the full shebang as outlined here.

A note that should be added, since this is a sticky:

IF YOU HAVE OFFSET LOWER BUSHINGS OR EXTENDED LOWER BALL JOINTS, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET BELOW 5* CASTER.

I have just the offset bushings and couldn't get below 5.5*. That was good enough for me, but the car is not my daily.

I would honestly do the full FM style depower but the ginormous lock nut on my rack won't come off even with heat and the allen bolts that are holding the top of the housing on won't budge either. So I said fuck it and did the loop method.

My feeling is that the loop method can be viable so long as all the metal-metal contact areas are lubricated. I mean, the steering rack is about a millionth as high friction/heat as the transmission or rear end, and I change the fluid in those pretty infrequently.

Good warning about caster. This isn't my daily either, but I was definitely considering 3.5 degrees caster once I have the rack back in the car. (I am going to daily it, but only to put miles on the engine/clutch to break it in)

Oh yeah I forgot to put the bit about the caster.

Im running 4.5 degrees caster, now, and the feedback and effort are a little on the light side. Maybe I got used to the absurd steering effort of 8 degrees caster!

Next alignment Ill try 5, just a bit more.


I used two channellock 460 pliers, 16 inch handles and over 4 inch opening. To remove the large nuts. (Also to tighten and loosen the adjustment setting nut) I dont have a vice and i actually put one channellocks handles where the mounting bushings go, to keep the rack from spinning, and the othe channellock to loosen the big stuff. Im not that strong and I really appreciated the leverage.
​​​​​​

​

I cranked the wheel back and forth with it opened up to get most of the fluid out before looping the lines I did not add any additional lubrication. No issues so far, but it's only been a few months. I read somewhere on the internet to do this, this does not necessarily mean it's a good idea :hsugh:

On a NB miata, it is a 39mm locknut. It would not come loose with any type of pliers on my car, so I bought this:


With my impact, it came off instantly, as expected.

I'd suggest some research about 3.5* caster. Without power steering you want as much caster as you are OK with steering effort. I'd recommend starting at 4.5-5*.

Is it the same size on a NA?

I'd say it would be, was really close to 40mm on my adjustable wrench (NA6)
Never did get it so I purchased an oem manual rack instead lmao.

Just finished my third re-power conversion on my own car after Oregonmon's and GreddyGalant's NA. Must be getting old.

Also, I don't know a fabricator/welder in my area that would give a rat's ass about welding steering components on a street car.