[penguin]

I've been lurking on this site for quite some time and this is my first post.

First of all, I was worried that disabling the power steering would make driving dangerous and perhaps too difficult. I was worried because the steering in my old jeep required tremendous effort if the engine wasnt on.

I finally decided to just take off the belt and take the car for a test drive(in awful rainy conditions at night - maybe not the best time for a test drive).

The steering requires maybe 2-3 times more effort with the pump off (but still connected) while moving very slowly and it is possible to move the wheel while completely stopped.

I expect the effort to be even less when I loop the power steering lines and remove the pump completely. Right now I am actually turning the pump myself when I turn since the hydraulic lines are still connected.

Now for the fun part. I actually broke my best trip MPG figure on the way to work this morning. I made 50.2 MPG on the way to work. My best is 48.5 on the way home in the evening. Best in the mornings is usually 45 MPG.

As an engineer I know testing is important, but I feel this one has been proven enough and not really worth the gas for me to do testing on.

I'll post again about my sense of the difficulty in turning the wheel once I loop the lines.