Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 01:47:25 EDT
Reply-To: CarlMarin@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: CarlMarin@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Power steering rack seals shot/ PS vs Manual Steering
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Somebody Wrote:
<<<<<<<
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 19:57:31 -0500
From: Tony Kimmons <akimmons@PDQ.NET>
Subject: Re: Power steering rack seals shot
I slammed into a curb only a month after purchasing my 87GL and took the
belt off then as I could not afford a new rack job...(quote was
750.00!)
Well years went by and that job is still on my list. Hopefully I can
afford it now and will be doing that job before too much longer.
I had no problems removing the belt and the van has been on many long
trips with it that way. You get use to the harder steering...
<<<<<<<
Hi all,
Anybody ever swap out the power steering rack for a good old simple and
trouble free manual rack? Would they be direct bolt on swaps? Is there
really an extra 2-3 mpg running without the PS belt affixed?
Seems like the weight and power loss of the power steering system might be a
good luxury to forego especially on a Westfalia. I have an 84 Westie without
PS and an 85 GL Westie with PS. Frankly, the 84 seems more nimble and
responsive and the steering effort as slow speeds is pretty much a non issue.
Other differences, the PS steering wheel is smaller in diameter I guess making
it a bit easier to slide behind the wheel but the downside is that for a tall
person like myself the small wheel blocks most of the interesting ranges of
the speedometer and tach! I'm temped to at least find a manual sized steering
wheel to retrofit to the 85 so I don't have to crane my neck to see how fast
I'm not going up hills.
As a side note, my 85 turned out to have "super" power steering when I bought
it. The previous owner had the tires inflated to more than 85psi each(pegged
my tire gage!) presumeably to make the Westie roll a little easier and feel
like it had a bit more power than it did. I was amazed when I discovered this
a couple of weeks after buying it. The steering had an odd twitchy snatch to
it just off center kind of like Ford Explorers. I attributed this at first to
the power steering but was relieved to find this was not permanent. BTW, the
tires are Gislaved C400 195R14C LT 8plys, seem like decent tires (at normal
pressure!), wearing well, good wet performance, and most important, big enough
to look right in the Vanagon wheel wells. Probably no longer available :^(
Carl Turner
Westie**2
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