Power Steering Delete

[jdham137]

I'd like to lose the power steering in my truck, a 98 Nissan Frontier. This truck was never offered with manual steering so there's no wat I can just swap parts. Can anyone recomend an electric motor to run the pump?

[parasonic]

Originally Posted by jdham137

I'd like to lose the power steering in my truck, a 98 Nissan Frontier. This truck was never offered with manual steering so there's no wat I can just swap parts. Can anyone recomend an electric motor to run the pump?

Just disconnect it..?

[Snax]

2nd generation MR2s were equipped with an electric power steering pump.

I would not want to even try to drive a pickup without power steering.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

My buddy's dad had a 1 ton GM van w/o power steering. Not too bad unless you were totally stopped. Definitely a work out.

[jdham137]

I thought about just disconnecting it but I've been told that it's really dangerous to do so. It makes the steering even more difficult than manual steering. I think I'll need to check out the MR2 option.

[SVOboy]

I'd try disconnecting it and seeing how difficult it feels before you do anything else (meaning buying things).

[Snax]

Agreed - somewhat.

While you can remove the belt and try it that way, it's probably a not a true picture of the effort required to steer without removing the pump from the system completely. In other words, when you turn the wheel, the fluid in the rack has to go somewhere. And unless there is a way to bypass it through or around the pump, it won't go easily.

The only way to get a true picture of how it will work is to bypass the pump or simply disconnect the lines to it. For testing purposes, you could probably just disconnect them at the pump and stick the ends into a catch can. The force required to clear the lines of fluid is far less without the pump in the mix.

[gasssaver87]

my 73 f250 4x4 had the power assist (with a hydraulic ram on the linkage) and the pump blew up so i just pulled the belt off and drove it. it even has big 33x12.50r16.5 tires!

anyways, summit sells an electric motor meant for running a water pump for about 100 bucks (might not be a bad idea itself) perhaps you could get it to run your pump (maybe both?) the only thing there is that you would need a bigger pulley on the power steering pump because it takes way more power to run it than a water pump, so change pulleys to gain a mechanical advantage since you dont need the pump to run at more than 1000rpm.

just my .02