Suspension Steering rack questions

AbhorrentSpecies

Active Member
Jun 14, 2020
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Las Vegas
So my power steering rack needs replacing. It's got bent hard lines and the pump whines more than my ex wife. All in all to replace it all it's something like 300 bucks but everything is remanufactured and I'm sure unreliable. I've been considering a manual rack. I'm not worried about it being difficult, I drove a 67 c10 with manual steering and never had problems. My question is, how the heck do I route the belt or where do I get a pulley to replace the PSP? I have no AC and no smog pump. So I'm already running damn near no accessories as it is.
 
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And old school trick was to disassemble the tensioner and "flip" it so it pulled up. Then you can route the belt for the crank, WP and alt.

Downside is there night not be enough wrap on the water pump pulley.

You can also switch to a standard rotation water pump which will change the direction the belt wraps around it and might still work fine as well
 
And old school trick was to disassemble the tensioner and "flip" it so it pulled up. Then you can route the belt for the crank, WP and alt.

Downside is there night not be enough wrap on the water pump pulley.

You can also switch to a standard rotation water pump which will change the direction the belt wraps around it and might still work fine as well
I don't have my tensioner anymore. I switched to the turnbuckle style cause my bearings were going on my tensioner. Could I just run the power steering pump pulley with no hoses attached and no fluid? Just for the time being or is that not advisable haha
 
I don't have my tensioner anymore. I switched to the turnbuckle style cause my bearings were going on my tensioner. Could I just run the power steering pump pulley with no hoses attached and no fluid? Just for the time being or is that not advisable haha
You could run the lines looped with some fluid in them but it's going to be even harder to steer than a manual rack and you run the risk of them seizing up.

Right thing would be to pickup a manual rack and steering shaft if you want to go manual.

As far as the belt routing is concerned I've ran just the alt, water pump, crank with a short belt and march turn buckle style mount on two or three cars fine. One was a daily driven car for years with no issues. Some say you don't have enough contact on the waterpump pulley but I never had an issue and the daily driven car got ran hard out of frustration in and out of traffic for years. The catch here though, is that I would not recommend this small belt setup to you if you are still using the stock mechanical fan setup that is bolts to the water pump pulley. You could try it I've never done it, I always had an electric fan when running this setup.
 
You could run the lines looped with some fluid in them but it's going to be even harder to steer than a manual rack and you run the risk of them seizing up.

Right thing would be to pickup a manual rack and steering shaft if you want to go manual.

As far as the belt routing is concerned I've ran just the alt, water pump, crank with a short belt and march turn buckle style mount on two or three cars fine. One was a daily driven car for years with no issues. Some say you don't have enough contact on the waterpump pulley but I never had an issue and the daily driven car got ran hard out of frustration in and out of traffic for years. The catch here though, is that I would not recommend this small belt setup to you if you are still using the stock mechanical fan setup that is bolts to the water pump pulley. You could try it I've never done it, I always had an electric fan when running this setup.
First off, I never said anything about running a power steering rack. My intent is to run a MANUAL rack and steering shaft. My ONLY question is, how to route the belt and can I run a dead steering pump pulley. For now....
 
I would also say the pump would burn up eventually as well.

Why not just go standard rotation water pump
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Not my car, so you'd just have to do your due diligence and research if this is the right path for you to take. I know many people have done this method though, but i do not know if water pump pulley slippage is an issue.

I have all my accessories so i can't offer personal experience.
 
First off, I never said anything about running a power steering rack. My intent is to run a MANUAL rack and steering shaft. My ONLY question is, how to route the belt and can I run a dead steering pump pulley. For now....
First off yeah my assumption was wrong.. I seen you mention power steering pump and assumed you were doing it the half assed way with leaving the power steering rack in. My fault but to answer your ONLY question which I ALREADY did. You can run a shorter belt as long as your not running a mechanical fan. Or get yourself a bobo idler pulley if your not comfortable with the shorter belt.
 

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If you have ac, just use the shorter belt per the last post. I rigged up a junkyard pulley bracket on my 82 when I pulled the ps because I did not have ac. Later I went to a std rotation waterpump. This harder than you would think.
 
If you have ac, just use the shorter belt per the last post. I rigged up a junkyard pulley bracket on my 82 when I pulled the ps because I did not have ac. Later I went to a std rotation waterpump. This harder than you would think.
I don't have AC or Smog pump. It's all good. I've just decided to keep the power steering. Too much of a hassle to delete it. I need a new power steering rack. Anyone have any recommendations? I don't want to get some junk that starts leaking again in 6 months.
 
You really only have 3 options.

#1) Good used part.

#2) Reman rack. There are only so many mass rebuild shops doing these.

#3) Turn One steering - Pricey, but supposedly a high quality rebuild.


If you are going to invest money into this, an SN95 rack would be worthwhile, but by the time you buy a rack and the steering shaft adapter this gets to be quite spendy.
 
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