Rack And Pinion, No pump?

[MyCARneedsHelp]

Hey guys im sick and tired of the pumps going out on me. Ive tryed everything from replacing the pump, hoses, cap, housing, different clamps.... Im done... Im tired of wasting money. Can i just take the pump off and cap it with a bolt or somthing? ..

 

[99blkcobravert]

You will need to drain the fluid from the rack so you won't get a serious workout when truning the wheel.

 

[MyCARneedsHelp]

ok so it would be oka? should i put new fluid in it? or just leave it all out

 

[BELL]

i'm pretty sure all out

 

[rd]

Not sure I would do this on a driver, but a lot do this for race cars and it seems to work, although I have heard that some tracks do not allow it.

You need to get most of the fluid out, to keep from having to push fluid when you turn.

I went with a manual rack on my 82, and it drives just fine, but the ratio is made for manual use.

 

[Dr_EluSivE]

a manual - power rack isnt going to work real well, and probably wont last long either due to lack of lubrication. I think i would just figure out why you keep killing off the power stuff. You must be using inferior parts or there must be some other underlying problem you havent found yet that would be causing problems with your power steering. Personally, for a daily driven car i would hunt down and fix whatever is causing your power problems, the system isnt terribly complicated.

Dr.

 

[MyCARneedsHelp]

Well its not really a daily driver. I go to work and back and maybe a store or 2 and then the car sits until tomorrow or even days after... I dont have any more money and i need to get this thing back on the road.

 

[RustBucket]

Here's another trick I learned from some racers a long time ago. On the old steering boxes, they'd simply connect the two ports together via a hardline or a rubber line loop. This prevents errant fluid from getting spit out of the open ports and keeps dirt and water out of the works.