Ok so I have a chance to either use a manual rack from my wrecked 99 EK or a working PS rack from another 96 EK I am buying...which would serve me better? I have to give one back to the ins company

 

The manual rack ratio is soooo slow, that's a lot of wheel twirling... I would go with the looped P/S rack, I love mine.

 

looped ps rack.

 

I'll take my manual over a PS rack.

Just for the fact that I drive my car every day.

 

Take the manual rack and install a quafe quick steer kit in it..
Real nice.......

 

Then try paralell parking it for a semester and show us your guns afterwards.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rene M &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Take the manual rack and install a quafe quick steer kit in it..
Real nice....... </TD></TR></TABLE>

Not only will your steering response be improved, but so will your acceleration due to instantaneous deflation of the wallet....

But all jokes aside, I think the 6th gen Civics most unfavorable trait (behind the lame seats) is the steering.

If spending some money isn't a big deal, then consider what Rene said or get something like this:
http://www.colemanracing.com/c..._1487

Which will likely require you to keep the powersteering because the effort I have heard is significantly increased.

Otherwise, my vote is for the PS rack vented/looped

 

anyone have links to 'how to' loop a p/s rack?

thanks

 

Its simple... remove the lines and clip off about a 1.5 to 2 inch piece of metal from the front line ( the line that goes to the pump).. Get some clamps and some 1/2 inch tubing and prepare to loop...Next you'll want to get most of fluid out of the steering rack...hopefully your car is off the ground as this will be much easier with the car in the air. Turn your steering wheel from lock to lock 4 or 5 times...this will remove some fluid while leaving some in for lubrication. NOW, you can loop.

You should see one tube protruding from this location:




Use the tubing the you clipped off the PS line and place it back into the port (in red) and loop those two points. You're done

If you want pix, search a lil...bunch of stuff came up when I punched in removing power steering under the archives

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rene M &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Take the manual rack and install a quafe quick steer kit in it..
Real nice....... </TD></TR></TABLE>

No Quaife guts for the EK rack.

 

What does this thing do? $150 doesn't seem that much. The steering is only faster reacting with it?

Since i drove the new civic i'm dreaming of having such a steering in my EK4. Can i do anything to make my steering more direct, to shorten the turns for full turn from corner to corner. I hope you understood what i'd like my steering to be.

 

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

If spending some money isn't a big deal, then consider what Rene said or get something like this:
http://www.colemanracing.com/c..._1487

Which will likely require you to keep the powersteering because the effort I have heard is significantly increased.

Otherwise, my vote is for the PS rack vented/looped </TD></TR></TABLE>

so what will this thing do? Is it made specifically for EKs?

 

I looped my ps rack and it's been fine. I know for a fact that the ps rack has a better (slightly quicker) steering ratio than the manual rack. in road racing, the quicker the rack the better (that's why quaife's is so quick). Except quaife's rack isn't legal for some of the road racing series out there (honda challenge, ustcc, world challenge).
looping the ps rack would be the way to go

 

The link I posted is a universal item and will require cutting and chopping your steering assembly.

It does what it says....it's a steering quickener.

There have been posts made in the past about this unit (not this one specifically) but I first heard about something like this in a rallye Integra....then drift cars and oval track racers.

 

searching pretty much owns this thread.

Anyway looping the rack correctly requires a breather so you dont have to push air everytime you turn. The breather should be mounted higher up the firewall so the remaining ps fluid doesn't spew out of it.

There are threads and threads on this

all the real stunners on the west coast run PS when given the option, it comes down to the fact it's usually a long weekend and it's hot and with layers of nomex ect endurance goes downhill quick and it's probably worth more in laptimes than plus 2hp

The quickers are cool especially the howe stealth which requires chopping into the steering shaft and fabing a solid mount for it.

Of course for those that want the holy grail of PS IE less overall weight and no accesory drag the toyota MR2 electric pump can be fabbed in

 

Having just come back from my first track day w/my K motor, non-PS ITR, I just want to warn folks that you will be getting some feedback that you weren't noticing before.

Understeer that you were automatically correcting will be more noticeable now.

Bump steer is suddenly noticeable where before you'd have sworn it was a great strength of the chassis that it didn't have any bump steer.

You were probably making all these corrections with the PS before, but now they're just much more noticeable, and it could actually serve to improve your driving.

 

Wow. Had you been using power steering prior to the K installation, George?

This was not nearly as noticeable to me, but I guess it's because I hadn't used power steering since 2001.

Glad you like it and yes, it definitely takes some getting used to. Hopefully I'll figure it out by 2010

 

Yep. All B motor incarnations had been with PS.

It was probably not the brightest thing in the world for me to let them make so many changes at the same time. It's such a different car now.

I was already old and slow.

Now I'm old, slow and stupid.

 

also I should mention PS with the quickeners tend to boil the PS fluid without a cooler installed

 

To add to what GK stated about track driving, if you are running alot of Caster, it will also make things a bit more "noticable". The breather is something that Im actually going to install today...I've heard so much about that that I can't pass up trying...its a work out just to drive the DC through the parking lot of my local Fred Meyers.

 

what exactly is a looped p/s?

 

I *think* they're referring to when you remove the resevoir, pump, hardlines, and use a non-kink hose to loop the rack. That's the setup I'm running now, minus the breather.

Am I the only one that actually likes the feel of no power steering without a breather on track?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Back in Black &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Am I the only one that actually likes the feel of no power steering without a breather on track? </TD></TR></TABLE>

I've never felt a need to add a breather to the rack either. I'd imagine that the breather would dull the feedback a little.

 

&lt;----manaul rack equipped EK hatch and its great!

never been a fan of looped P/S racks, I tried a P/S rack in another car with the hoses routed to a catch / dump can of sorts and that was okay, but the manual rack just feels better IMHO.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Back in Black &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I *think* they're referring to when you remove the resevoir, pump, hardlines, and use a non-kink hose to loop the rack. That's the setup I'm running now, minus the breather.

Am I the only one that actually likes the feel of no power steering without a breather on track? </TD></TR></TABLE>

so pretty much it disables the p/s but still leaves some fluid in there to lubricate the rack and pinion?? am i coorect??