Power Steering delete for fuel economy gain - anyone done it?

[turbovr41991]

Originally Posted by electronFarmer

That is precisely why I chose the simplest solution... manual steering box.

I agree. I have tired it both ways and it is much better with manual steering rack!

[IsaacCarlson]

We removed the power steering on our car and F-250.

The car was very hard to steer with the belt off because you still have to push the fluid through the vector and pump. I drained most of the fluid and looped the lines at the rack. For the pump, I removed the vanes and put it back together with some oil in it so it would not burn up the bushings. The car used a serp belt so I could not leave it off. It worked great and my wife loved driving it. The steering effort was almost zero and you could feel what the tires were doing.

The truck was a little different. I rerouted the belt and cut the lines to loop them at the steering box. It was ok, but 3,000 lbs on the steer tires was killer on the arms with the original steering box. I picked up a manual box from the parts store and WOW! My wife can drive that too.

Neither one of us likes power steering anymore because you can't feel what the tires are doing. Manual steering lets you feel when they start to slip and gives you more feel for the road.

[Weather Spotter]

In my car, I took off the belt and put a smaller one on. The steering is a bit harder but only 15-20% at low speeds. I like the road feel, and the additional power.

I tried doing some ABA testing but could not get the belts on and off with the engine hot

[Christ]

Originally Posted by dennyt

Running power steering off the driveshaft means you have 0 assist in parking lots, which is the whole point of power steering in a daily driver.

Not really, considering that you're MOVING through the parking lot... proper pulley size would have had a bunch to do with it. The real problem would have been over-running the pump and destroying it at highway speeds.

[Christ]

I plan on removing the PS and (unused) A/C pumps on my '92 Camaro (3.1) soonish. Well, whenever I decide it's time to do more wrenching on it. Probably the same day I pull the the front end off to change the 3 blown/non working headlights.

That'll the be same day I trim the exhaust down and make a side-exit pipe in front of the "too-wide-rear-tires-that-cost-me-more-than-the-stupid-car-did".

Of course, eventually I plan on using a Mustang II rack and pinion setup to save some front weight, too, because I'm also putting a 3800SC under the hood. Gotta compensate for the extra weight there.

Oddly, the cars with the 3800SC got better MPG (and obviously much, much more power) than the 3100 cars did. Hm.

[ksa8907]

i may have to do the PS delete, if i make a hard input to the wheel at low engine speed the pump screams like banshee, and its not the belt slipping. already have the ac out so after the ps would be the alternator.

[oil pan 4]

I finely got around to measuring how much power it takes to turn a P/S pump.
It looks like if you can keep the P/S turning at 850rpms it takes hardly any power to turn, around 150 to 200 watts.
But when you bring it up to a more normal cruse speed say about 2,000 rpms power draw goes up quite a bit. It took a little over 500 watts to keep it turning at that speed.
For my suburban 500w gets about half MPG.
I'm going with a clutched setup.

[Christ]

I just read about everything I planned on doing with the Camaro... and laughed at myself.

I traded that car for a '95 S10 that needed a bunch of work because I'd rather have a utility vehicle than a sports car. Man, I'm a redneck.

[lordherald]

For those asking about shorter belts.
Both v-belts and micro-v (serpentine) belts are made to a set of standard cross-sections in Vs they are like A, B, C, D or measured in inches across the outer face of the belt.

V beltsNotes on Pulleys and Belts

microJ Section Micro Rib Belts

I am not endorsing this second one they just have a nice diagram.

I used to work for a big name belt maker and we made every profile in lengths from around 8" circumference up to 144" in half inch increments.

The auto parts store should have a set of notched templates that fit into the pulleys and another for measuring the belts.

I have one around here somewhere and will upload a pic if I find it.

[krrcan]

I have also started to think about this mod.
I discussed it shortly in this thread:
Ops, can't post urls.
Google for briskoda + "getting rid of power steering"

However... I'm scared that the rack will not take the pressure and increased wear that manually steering with a power steering rack would require.
Since the PAS-rack is designed to have assist, perhaps it can't handle manual handeling?

Is this fear unwarranted?
Please tell me that it won't break if I do this mod!

Here we can see the different equipment manual/powersteering
Google: "Classic Technical Guides" + "Felicia power steering retro-fit thread"