I did a search for removing the power steering and saw a good thread in the ITR forum I think. They were talking about looping the two fittings where the input and output lines go into the rack. They then went on and was talking about putting in a breather to help relieve some of the pressure in the lines. This was supposed to make it easier to turn. I am trying to figure out if this would work on the 5th gen lude? I'm in a hurry since I'm at work on lunch and don't have time to find the thread but will later. Hopefully you guys understand what I'm talking about but if not I'll try to make it alot clearer later today.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by breathinez &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I did a search for removing the power steering and saw a good thread in the ITR forum I think. They were talking about looping the two fittings where the input and output lines go into the rack. They then went on and was talking about putting in a breather to help relieve some of the pressure in the lines. This was supposed to make it easier to turn. I am trying to figure out if this would work on the 5th gen lude? I'm in a hurry since I'm at work on lunch and don't have time to find the thread but will later. Hopefully you guys understand what I'm talking about but if not I'll try to make it alot clearer later today.</TD></TR></TABLE>

A guy on PO.com did this but at the end of the day, he said it was NOT enough to offset the ridiciulously stiff feel off the wheel without PS.

I think he said taking a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being a car with just the belt removed and 10 with the PS, doing the breather mod comes in at a 2-3. For comparison he said a stock car without PS from the factory is about a 6-7.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by somboa &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

A guy on PO.com did this but at the end of the day, he said it was NOT enough to offset the ridiciulously stiff feel off the wheel without PS.

I think he said taking a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being a car with just the belt removed and 10 with the PS, doing the breather mod comes in at a 2-3. For comparison he said a stock car without PS from the factory is about a 6-7.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Bleh, it's not that bad. I can turn the wheel with one hand with my PS removed and no breather mod. The only semi difficult thing is turning the wheel in parking lot situations when the car is at a complete stop.

 

Installing a breather what would be the empty PS lines makes a world of difference in the stiffness. That pressure that builds up is the cause of most of the steering stiffness. With a breather on the system, running no PS isnt bad at all.

 

I was the one who posted about it over on po - tried it looped, with a breather, and completely open. Breather & open improved it some, but still not enough to be safe, imo. In low speed accident avoidance maneuvers (i.e. parking lot), you simply can't react quick enough. And, of course, parallel parking is a complete PITA. Nor can you shuffle steer, since you need the leverage of pulling the wheel across your body to turn it - NOT safe with an airbag. It's also extremely difficult to come out of corners smoothly, since the wheel recenters so violently - and if you have to shift at the same time, forget about it.

I say, definitely not worth it unless it's a dedicated drag car. Even a track car I'd have to think twice. Autocross, absolutely no way.

In order for this to be liveable on the Prelude, I think you'd need to do several things - take about 100 pounds off the front end, reduce the caster as much as physically possible, and rig the steering rack more thoroughly to completely get rid of all the p/s remnants. Oh, and definitely make sure not to use low offset wheels.

 

I did the same to mine (5th gen, breather etc) and it's fine for daily driving. Feels just like my Civic CX.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bdb &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I did the same to mine (5th gen, breather etc) and it's fine for daily driving. Feels just like my Civic CX.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Your car is gutted though right? Ie you lost about 250lbs off the car already?

Good thing with no PS is that potential thieves can't drive your car I guess.