Does anyone know of a manufacturer of a manual steering rack for our cars? I tried a google search a while ago and couldn't find any definite answers without taking my rack off to measure. I'd need complete dementions, lengths, and steering ratios.

 

Ready to go? Not that I can think of...

Custom? Sure - they're all over the hot rod world. http://www.flaming-river.com is one source that I happen to have a link handy, but there are others...

 

Just out of curiosity, have you driven your MINI with the rack depowered? It's way more of an arm wrestle than back in the day with the million to one ratio muscle cars.

 

I tired pulling the fuses, but there are two for the powersteering, and one of those also goes with the alternator. How did you disconnect it? Anyway, if I were to get a custom manual rack, I can have a new ratio put in.

 

The easy was is to key off the engine and coast down the road, LOL

On the R56 it's as easy as unplugging one of the three electrical harness connectors that go into the EPS, however on the R53 I've honestly never intentionally wanted a manual rack. The effort required to turn the car even at speed is nothing short of absurd with the factory ~13:1 ratio rack in unboosted mode.

 

What do plan to gain with a manual rack?

The current one is electric so there is no parasitic loss on the engine. Feel with the right tires is pretty darn good, it's certainly not over boosted like a luxo-barge is. There is no varaible rate depending on speed. All in all it's decent steering.

 

I think it would be cool to replace a burnt out power steering pump with a manual rack. It would also save weight. I think It would be fun.

 

You can run the factory rack without PS pump, but you need to remove the pump and drain the fluid to make it not turn like a 1950 dump truck at low speed.
But, I would keep the PS. It's an excellent system that runs only on demand. There is some power loss through the alternator. But when driving fast on the track there is very little demand on the pump.
You can always move that pump anywhere in the car. Mine is in the far right rear of the car.

 

If you plan to autoX or road race - even HPDE - PS will help you get into turns faster. You are at a disadvantage without it - with this car for sure.

Wus up Greg?

 

Noted. Now let's not post in this thread so it can disappear into obscurity untill 2 years from now someone posts in it, to which we will all wonder why someone brought this old thread back to life.

 

That's actually funny. Time warp. The funniest time warp I ever experienced was when a 16 year old began to drive and reopened 3 year old threads. Interesting.

 

I said not to post here anymore.

No more starting.......now.

 

I'm more interested in the comment, you can put the PS pump in another place. As they get hot and I will be using a skid plate I would be interested in any info on moving the pump.

Thanks

 

threads over 4 years old dude

but i've been thinking about getting a pulley PS pump and putting it where my A/C compressor is.