Removed my power steering belt yesterday (took about two minutes). My immediate reaction on pulling out of my parking spot was to reach for my wrench and put the belt back again! Steering effort is considerable. My sticky 225 series PZeros do not help matters.

After a few minutes driving around and wondering if I had actually made my car dangerous, my old manual rack habits came back to me. I had forgotten how much feedback that you can actually get from tires. After about twenty minutes I decided that I never want to drive a car with power steering again.

This modification has reminded me again how much modern cars are killing the pleasure of driving with technological 'improvements'. I'd recommend everyone to try this modification. Though, if you have not driven a car with a manual rack before you may be shocked at the amount of steering effort that is involved. (Apparently, you will also gain 4 whp or so all across the power band, though I didn't notice much difference.)

One thing I should note is that is is probably a good idea to mark the current position of the pump within the mounting bracket before removing the belt (whiteout will do) . This will make it easy to return the belt to its previous tension if you put the belt back. I also marked the orientation of the belt with an arrow so that I can remount it to rotate in its originial direction, though I am not sure how important that is.


[Modified by norice, 12:30 PM 12/3/2001]

 

If ur gonna keep the power steering off you should remove all the PS fluid.

 

I want to try this too - but have been seriously thinking of switching to a CRX rack to do the full conversion. Maybe a "taste" as you have described is in order.

BPR - who thinks the power steering is waaay overboosted.

 

haha. can you write out a small directions for those who's never tried removing it? (I have helms, but it's always good to hear things to watch out for. )

 

lucky bastards, don't have to parallel park

 

I kinda liked the no ps on my CRX that I had. Kind of miss the feeling of a stiff steering wheel.

 

If you are going to leave the Power steering rack in the car, then you should leave the fluid in the system.

 

Rguy> If ur gonna keep the power steering off you should remove all the PS fluid.

Ah, this is wrong! The fluid should be left circulating or the rack will eventual get damaged. The RealTime guys have removed their power steering pump but they keep fluid in the system, using a remote reservoir for the fliud.

Here is a thread discussing how to remove the belt:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=54632

 

Um, not all, or your rack will surely go bad.

The realtime R's run both lines from the rack to a reservoir

 

j00 beat me to it norice...

 

Can you remove a partial amount of the fluid? Or does all of it have to remain?

 

Just enough so the rack stays full, If you remove the pump and the excess lines, prolly a liter less I would guess.

 

what is the ratio of the crx rack? i think you will lose some of the quickness of steering by switching to the crx..but it will take less effort...i need to make one of those resevoirs for mine.its currently empty...

 

The search function on zeroforum sucks. Who's got the link to the thread with the realtime R p/s info, pics, etc.??

 

http://www.crxsi.com/specs.htm says the steering ratio for the Si is 18.6 with 3.8 turns lock to lock.

What's the Type R?

 

DC2 racks are 2.9 lock to lock

 

2.98 to be exact. As for the ratio, I believe it's between 15-16, no?

 

here...... instructions w/pics.

http://www.bseries.net/html/garage/psbelt.php
BudMan

 

When I drive my friends cars that have no power steeing, i know that Its like doing Curls, I feel like I need to get back on the juice when i do it, Andro please

 

Was the increase in horsepower noticable?

 

jond> Was the increase in horsepower noticable?

Not really.