Manual Rack on a Lumina

[MONICAZ34]

Anybody wanna help me out on this one. Power steering f**king pissin out fluid everywhere. Hate it! Want it gone! Had 4 luminas now with the 3.4 in them. I want it dead, Now!.

[MONICAZ34]

each one, PS pissed fluid everywhere.

[pocket-rocket]

Both of mine did it too. Replaced the pressure hose (~$30 at Advance) and haven't had a problem since.

[MONICAZ34]

yeah, but I constantly beat the crap outta this thing and I need something that will keep up with my needs.

[Dave96z34]

put your heat shields back in and stop beating on it

[pocket-rocket]

My cars have had the tar beaten out of them, and both of their steering systems are still fine. I bet since I have had both of them the "beaten miles" are almost as high as normal driving miles. When I take off from a stop light or merge into traffic, you bet I get on it. And since I like the sound of my car, I don't get on it lightly unless there is traffic in front of me going slow. Neither of my cars have lived an easy life, and yet both are fine (minus rear end collision damage on the 91). Besides, if you were to find a manual rack for a W body (which I doubt were ever made) these cars are pigs. That's a lot of weight pushing down on those front tires, which is going to make steering really suck. I drove an old 73 Nova w/ manual steering before. And even though it had an actual manual rack in it, it wasn't the easiest to steer, so I would think twice about trying such a thing in a w body.

[Identity Crisis]

Drove a Sunbird with a manual rack and unless the car was moving at a good speed it was a PITA!

[95SleeperAcheiva]

Sunbird the same rack as achieva? I been looking for a manual rack for my achieva.

[crazyd]

Try turning the wheel with the ignition on but the engine off. It's so difficult you'll never be able to park it and will barely be able to control it when it's moving. The effort required for an evasive maneuver will simply be too much.

[RedZMonte]

Try turning the wheel with the ignition on but the engine off. It's so difficult you'll never be able to park it and will barely be able to control it when it's moving. The effort required for an evasive maneuver will simply be too much.

I agree, just fix it the correct way and be done with it. it will be very heavy to turn when moving slow. BUT actually it will not be hard once the car is moving. alot of newer cars are just power steering assist so when you are at a certin speed it is not assisting. when the car is moving it will not be hard to turn, it might be a little heavy but not bad. Again hard at low speeds..

If you do want to remove power steering. can't you plug the rack and call it a day... I know thats how the honda guys do it. you would have to bypass or do something with the P/S Pump.

S

[crazyd]

alot of newer cars are just power steering assist so when you are at a certin speed it is not assisting. when the car is moving it will not be hard to turn, it might be a little heavy but not bad. Again hard at low speeds..

Actually that's not how it usually works in the hydraulic power steering systems - they're variable effort, not variable assist. The difference is that the hydraulic power steering unit is providing constant assist, but there is an additional unit added that actually increases the resistance to the power steering as speed increases. The newer electric power steering units (like what are used in the G6) provide variable assist.

[pocket-rocket]

I unplugged the variable assist on the pump on my wife's car because it was hard to turn until the engine was sped up. I tried it just out of curiosity. It was nice and easy to turn again at low speeds, but then when I was going around 50, the steering was way to easy to turn, making it extremely easy to over correct, so I plugged it back in. I would rather have her have to fight the wheel in a parking lot then throw her car off the road to miss a raccoon.