Suspension Manual steering with modern radial tires?

02 281 GT

Agreed...My wife has great Boobs
15 Year Member
Feb 3, 2009
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Searches only brought up questions regarding manual box swaps and what not.

So I’m trying to figure out if I should go with power steering on my car when the time comes, or if I can stick with manual steering such as came with the car.

I’ll be going with an IFS up front with rack and pinion as well as a V8 instead of the original straight six. Does anyone have experience with driving a manual steering car with a V8 and something like 7” wide wheels with radial tires up front? This car will be driven mostly on the street. Would I be wishing I went with power steering with an aluminum headed V8 with air conditioning and 17x7” wheels with radial tires?

This was a pretty basic car from the factory and I’d like to keep I that way by maintaining the manual steering and brakes. Less clutter under the hood and no potential for leaks.
 
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My 65 has stock manual steering and 17 inch rims and is hard to steer at low speeds (ie. creeping around parking lot)
rack and pinion would be slightly more forgiving I imagine.
If I did it over I would add power steering /brakes (yes I'm getting old).
 
My Mustang II with a dead power rack and 16x7 wheels drives fine as long as you're rolling. In parking lots where you're turning the wheel sitting still can be a bit of a PITA, but once above about 0.5mph or so, it's no big deal at all. I'm swapping to a manual rack because the power rack blowing out a seal showed me that power steering just isn't all that necessary on it.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks for y'alls input. I'm thinking I'll probably be fine with manual steering. I'm planning to go with a reproduction deluxe steering wheel when the time comes.
 
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I had the quick steer Shelby pitman arm ,manual box ,the hccaw box ,no power and radial BFGs ,pain in the but to steer from a stand still but fine while driving ,in fact down right fun in the curves ,do the upper control arm drop ,it makes a big difference in handling and makes driving curvy roads a blast
 
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