Pros and cons of manual steering rack on a NA

[PaulF]

Ah, the old "manual vs power steering" debate. It's only been going for about 15 years...

[NitroDann]

Its pure preference. Either you like steering feel and dont mind the weight when parking, or you dont want the weight when parking and dont mind giving up some feel.
I reckon they are about an even trade off and ones cheaper and lighter and more reliable...

Dann

[ShadyDeals]

i have owned Mx's with both racks. My first one was manual rack. I never liked power steering in any car because of the floaty feel and not being in touch with the road. However..

My second MX has a PS rack but somehow with the MX's it doesn't compromise road feel.

Now if i had to choose between the two i would go Power Assist.

My reason becomes apparent when i'm been blowing the cobwebs (and sometimes paint) off my car around the hills in south gippsland.

With the manual rack your nuckles are white pulling the car around the corner, with the Power i have one hand on the wheel and the other ripping the gearstick. I would not have made this choice if the steering was "floaty" but like i said there is no compramise in road feel and there is a perfect amount of resistance on the steering wheel.

Can anyone back me up on this?
Agree /disagree?

[PaulF]

From reading about this topic plenty of times in the past, ShadyDeals, I would say a lot of PS owners would agree with you. I can't personally comment because I haven't dríven an MX equipped with PS.

[NitroDann]

With the manual rack your nuckles are white pulling the car around the corner, with the Power i have one hand on the wheel and the other ripping the gearstick.

Can anyone back me up on this?
Agree /disagree?

For PS, the PS in an mx5 is very good. Correct.

You have the wrong alignment or horrible offset wheels if you find the steering heavy at any speed above 10kph.

Dann

[93_Clubman]

I just run higher tyre pressures (32PSI cold all round) to overcome any heaviness of no PS.

[Dweezle]

I agree with Shady Deals.

Coming from a PS model, i find on windy roads i notice quite a large amount of extra effort required to make turns.
Even at Wakefield, Turn 10 is a bit of a hold on tight corner. if this is due to alignment, (Spinning Wheels), then i would love to change it.
With the PS Roadster i had, it never felt floaty, or less tight. Just lighter which allowed more concentration on car placement as opposed to holding the car turning.

i have gotten used to it mostly. But when ever i jump back in the PS Roadster it is quite a nice shock

[jerrah]

With the manual rack your nuckles are white pulling the car around the corner

I've owned a number of ps and non-ps cars over the years but I've never found the steering difficult in the MX5. Certainly not 'white knuckles' turning the car whilst moving.

With wide semi-slicks whilst stationary the car was a little difficult to turn but the slightest movement forward or backwards and it's more than manageable.

I've never had a PS MX5 and I haven't thought twice about the steering so it can't be that heavy - it just works!

What's your alignment specifications ShadyDeals?

[7Hazi]

Kinda on topic:

What about a depowered power steering rack? I have seen this depowering kit available:

http://www.miataroadster.com/miataroads ... 63109.aspx

Any comments on this? I would be keen as I can see the advantage of a depowered power rack over a manual rack but I'm not so sure draining the fluid, removing everything and plugging up the holes in the power rack would be a long lasting solution...

[NitroDann]

..... I can't personally comment because I haven't dríven an MX equipped with PS.

Haha, this proves a LOT!

Paul has dríven 2 mx5s. Both na6's.
He drove mine, with no ps, then the other with it, 5 minutes later and obviously couldnt tell the difference.

Dann

[Hellmun]

I've depowered my P/S rack but retained the p/s ratio in my 2001 NB8B. I think it's far too heavy for a street car and wouldn't recommend it unless you are pretty strong and do a LOT of trackwork. That said I've dríven clubman's and the ratio difference makes it a much better compromise, that manual rack is perfect for dual duty car. In terms of driving feel though the feedback is HUGE on the p/s rack ratio without assistance. It made a massive difference for me especially on wet tracks for how much grip the car has available. My car is as bad as it can get though, maximum caster and depowered p/s rack on a wide semi-slicks .

For a street only car I'd never remove the p/s , compared to other cars I've dríven the Mx5 p/s maintains a great deal of feedback and is still comfortable in the daily. I'd say it's a great balance in compromise between feedback and comfort.

7Hazi that kit is not going to work by itself, to do it properly with the least resistance you'd still take the rack out, cut the metal seal, grease and re-assemble. Then get an alignment unless you marked the tie-rod ends properly because you'll have random toe settings. It's a one-way trip without replacing the rack so grab a ride with someone before you consider it.

Oh and I've dríven a LOT of Mx5's, I have the pleasure of often doing driver training at the NSW mx5 clubdays so I've dríven many different configurations.

[7Hazi]

Thanks for the advice Hellmun. I did a bit more reading on the matter and people seem to generally agree that depowered racks (depowered the easy way via block-offs/looping lines) are heavy and kind of annoying to drive with. I don't want to remove the rack... I just got an alignment!! lol

[PaulF]

..... I can't personally comment because I haven't dríven an MX equipped with PS.

Haha, this proves a LOT!

Paul has dríven 2 mx5s. Both na6's.
He drove mine, with no ps, then the other with it, 5 minutes later and obviously couldnt tell the difference.

(Actually, I've dríven three NA6's. I got to drive PhilM's Eunos the next day. )
Haha, I honestly didn't realise that John's car had PS, though I did think the steering was very light considering the tiny go-kart-style steering wheel. I was surprised at how light yours was as well, though I think just about anything feels light after driving an MGA on wide tyres, heavy wheels (compared to the originals) and a small steering wheel.

I'd love to drive a car with NA8 or NB power steering, as I understand that there were revisions to improve feel from NA6 to NA8.

[Inksta]

+1 for manual.

However, just thought I'd pitch in to mention that I injured my shoulder a few weeks ago and driving has been quite painful since. In this sort of scenario... I would love power steering!

[Pamex]

This week I have gone from manual to power steering in my NA6, using an NA8 power set-up.

I used to like manual steering a lot, and wouldn't really consider swapping to power.

However, with my manual rack and tie rods being completely screwed, I needed to fix that. Some may have read of my debacle in trying to find manual steering components in Aus. I have some pretty good connections and even they couldn't help. Power Steering set ups are easy and cheap to find though, so I went that route.

What an amazing difference. To be honest, I don't think any feel has been lost. I certainly can't feel any loss there.

I really do believe this is going to make a huge difference to my motorkhana times. I'm very, very much looking forward to our next bitumen run. It can't come quick enough.

I never found the manual steering to be an issue with heaviness, even when I was stock and hadn't stripped all the weight out of the car yet. However for where I need quick steering response, a la motorkhana, I really believe this is the way to go. Less turns lock-to-lock will certainly benefit as well.