Can I Get Rid of Power Steering and Replace With Manual???

[Thomas M]

If I had my druthers, I would not have power steering. My 78 Rabbit did fine without it and my '91 Jetta, with narrow 13 tires, should be no problem either. Also, I see some people are driving their cars around with non-functioning power steering pumps and managing ok.

Can the pump be disabled and/or removed? The belt could be replaced with a shorter one so the water pump still has a backup. And could the rack be emptied of fluid and capped off or short circuited to reduce stiffness in the system.\???

Would it just be easier to remove the pump and rack and replace the rack with a manual unit????

Has anyone ever done this???

Just found this: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3455386

This is a great DIY thread, but my question about taking off the pump and leaving the PS rack on still stands. Does anyone know if this will work???? Why not???

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[82vdub]

Easiest test of what you'll need to do to run without a PS pump is to temporarily remove the PS belt and drive the car. Some cars will steer easily and some will take two people and 4 arms to turn the wheel. THat will answer the question on whether you will be able to just abandon your system as it is, or if you'll have to convert to a manual steering rack. Each car is different.

[Thomas M]

82vdub,

Thanks. But that leaves the fluid in the system and then, it seems to me, the steering rack piston forces the fluid through the system adding to the difficulty of steering.

What about my point of leaving the components but connecting the inlet and outlet hose coming from the PS rack, effectively "short circuiting" the fluid circuit and eliminating any back pressure in the system derived from forcing fluid around??? What am I missing here???

Thanks for your patience.

[the vegenator]

I removed the power steering pump on my old Mk2 with power steering. I may have connected the two hoses together, or I may have just plugged them up. Either way, steering was still manageable, as long as the tires had good pressure.

Parallel parking wasn't always fun though.

[82vdub]

I was just suggesting doing this as a test. If the fluid is causing additional friction in the system when the pump isn't turning, then your steering could get easier if the fluid is removed, or if the lines are connected to each other. It's just a test to give you a possible idea of what you may be in for if you abandon the pump.

Years ago I had a full size Chevy and a friend had one like it. When his power steering quit, his car was easy to turn the wheel, even while sitting. My car, even if it was going down the road you needed almost two people to turn the wheel. Don't know what was different between them.

[mattbondy]

I had power steering until the belt came off. I never put another one back on. I am not a big guy and I never had any issues. I also had snow tires on the front all year and a big ding in one of the rims that meant I had to keep inflating the tire every couple of weeks. With normal sized, properly inflated tires you should be fine.

[Thomas M]

I've only maneuvered the car a little with the engine not running, i.e., with the pump not running. So, maybe, those few turns of the wheel and movement of the piston were moving fluid out of the cylinder so the resistance is initially high. As some of you are saying, the steering effort may lessen as the fluid moves out of the cylinder, past any resistance to flow and back onto the pump and/or reservoir.

As suggested, the next step for me would be to pop the belt and drive around a bit without the pump running, but the full system connected and see how it steers. If it feels ok, then I can remove the pump and lines and cap off the system.

My initial motivation for doing this is the ridiculous effort required to just replace the thermostat ! $140.00 at my local VW shop ! Now I know why !

[mattbondy]

Unfortunately, $140 is a very inexpensive repair these days.

What is the connection between the thermostat repair and the power steering? The power steering is somewhat in the way but putting it back on is pretty well as easy as taking it off.

I just hated those v-belts. For the first couple of years I was checking and adjusting tension too often for the sake of luxuries like power steering and bright headlights. It was really the alternator belt that drove me crazy. Why design an idler to decrease the wrap angle when adjusted to take up slack? Was the setup better on non-AC cars?

[82vdub]

I was tightening the alternator belt on my 86 non-AC Jetta at least once a month when I was driving it. I really needed to tighten it about every week, but I would let it go. There's so much space between the alternator and the water pump that the belt whips and constantly rotates the alternator. I ended up installing a nut on the back side of the alternator bottom bolt, and that made it fall out of tension slower, but didn't stop it.

[Op-Ivy]

Ugh I go through power steering belts too often. After a couple months they are just too big to hold any tension, even after adjusting the pump to its max.

Going to start looking for a smaller belt soon.

[Thomas M]

I've had a lot of belt squeak in the past but solved the problem by replacing the alternator belt with the correct size (11.9mm for my '91 Jetta). That has make all of the difference in the world. The repair shop shop put a smaller size on because they didn't have the 11.9 in stock.
The small size required a lot more tension and still would get to squeaking pretty quickly, especially in rainy weather. That high tension could be a source of premature bearing wear on the alternator.