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Manual steering conversion

Just wondering what rack people use for the manual steering conversion. I couldn't find anything while searching. I know with the 1g dsm's I used a NT rack. What manual rack is a bolt in affair for Gvr4's?

Brent
 

atc250r

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Sep 11, 2003
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Orange County, NY
1g dsm nt.
 

atc250r

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Sep 11, 2003
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Location
Orange County, NY
Just a heads up though. If you're not planning on pretty much only drag racing it you might not be so happy with the results. For road racing it has way too slow of a ratio and it even makes spirited drives on back roads less enjoyable since you have to saw at the wheel around turns. The PS system uses very little power when going in a straight line anyway.

John
 

V8EATER

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Aug 19, 2003
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Independence, MO
If you use this rack, make sure to get the brackets as well, as one of them is slightly different in diameter than the stock Galant part.
 

cody

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Jan 24, 2005
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630
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Neenah, WI
I had a manual rack in my car and I had no issues whatsoever. I enjoyed driving it everytime I took it out. Even going into parking spots at the store wasnt bad. The rack has to come out of a base model 1g with the 1.8L motor. There fairly hard to find at local junk yards but hopefully you will get lucky. Make sure you get the drivers side bracket to mount it. if you dont, let me know. I got one laying on the shelf.
 

DR1665

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Oct 19, 2005
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Iowa City, IA
195 doesn't have power steering fluid right now. Essentially, it's manual steering at it's finest. Granted, I believe there are differences in the ratios between the two racks, but tight maneuvering at low speed without power back up sucks in these cars. Even my 23 year old Volvo station wagon is easier to drive without PS hooked up than the Galant (which is only marginally better than a 2G DSM).

If you plan on turning the wheel a lot, you won't be happy.
 

slugsgomoo

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Oct 16, 2003
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Tacoma, WA
comparing the power rack with no belt, and a manual rack is apples to oranges. you have something like 25-30% fewer turns which makes it way more difficult. it's 1.3 turns lock to lock difference IIRC.

I don't find the manual rack bad on corners except for really tight low speed back and forth- I definitely wouldn't want to AutoX it, but even with the caster bushings from whiteline (+1*) that make turn in a bit stiffer, it was still plenty easy to whip through corners with minimal effort. Over 35mph it doesn't get that mushy over-powered feeling either, which is kind of nice.

I simply haven't done it on my galant because i'm lazy and like power steering around town. but yeah, the manual rack is nowhere near that bad, your power rack is just messing with your brain. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hsught.gif
 

grocery_getter

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Jun 20, 2004
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Take the power rack and gut it. Best of both worlds.
 

^ What exactly do you mean? Any pictures? What do you take out? Is there a big difference in steering effort. Right now I have left in a small amount of fluid as lubrication and looped the lines together. I am worried about steering effort after adding positive caster bushings.
 

grocery_getter

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Take the rack out of car. Disassemble the rack taking out the inner working parts as if you are rebuilding it. Put it back together without the piston and seal. Done. Now you have a steering rack with the power rack steering ratio but without the piston and seal that make it hard to turn without hydraulic assist.
 

bustedsm

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Nov 30, 2006
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Ripley, Tennessee
Andre, any write up on this or some sort of testing? If this is possible I'm going to go ahead and do it while 808 is down.
 

grocery_getter

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Jun 20, 2004
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1,225
Location
Kent - industrial suburbs of Seattle, WA
I've done it.

Grab a 1g dsm power steering rack and just get dirty. The worse thing you can do is you screwed up a cheap old rack.
 

just one question maybe soething to add to this. i have found a place ill have to find the website not sure where it is. will a manual rack from a 88
galant work or are they different?
 
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