[Marko343]

Has anyone ever swapped in the Elise manual steering rack into the spyder? I'm not sure the column would line up but I can't be to call off. Obvious benefits being the weight savings of not needing the power steering pump, the lines and all the fluid. Rack itself is probably much lighter then a power assisted unit.

The unknowns being mounting points to the car and tie rods. Saw the used rack for sale on lotus talk and just got thinking.

 

[Audi_kraut]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to simply de-power the steering rack yourself?

http://www.flyinmiata.com/tech/depower.php

Same end result, less money, and you know it'll fit. Only real variable is your own skill.

 

[Jonty]

2,75 turns lock to lock is the difference, plus also feel is meant to be better manual rather than looped. personally if it goes in, I'd do it... in fact OP if you guinea-pig it, I'll follow!

 

[SuperWhiteGT4]

2,75 turns lock to lock is the difference, plus also feel is meant to be better manual rather than looped. personally if it goes in, I'd do it... in fact OP if you guinea-pig it, I'll follow!

We already have 2.6 turns lock to lock. What's the point?

 

[Jonty]

not 3.6? Never counted! just read that guide, seems to be a sensible way of doing it actually... maybe i should have just kept quiet!!

 

[Marko343]

That's the first time reading about de-powering a manual a manual rack. That's actually pretty cool. A very good option to, just don't want to butcher my factory rack. If I found a spare to use though.

Manual racks are designed(obviously) to be used without assist so there's less effort. But that de-powering might actually address the increased effort over a manual rack. Other benefit is the steering ratio. I'm pretty sure ours are more then the then the Elise.

I'm going to buy if it's available still, and see what I can do!

 

[Spargo]

If its roughly the same amount of turns lock to lock is there really a difference with a de-powered rack? A few people have run it and I haven't heard of a single failure, if one were to occur the highest load situations are actually low speed so you're significantly more likely to have a failure turning your wheels stopped than at speed. Honestly at that point though its not like the spyder is idential to an elise in the front end so its a bit random to choose unless I'm missing something, I don't know the dimensions of the racks compatibly but I know a lotus Elise is wider than a spyder by an inch so who knows what you're getting into. Realistically you might as well get a custom rack for as much as a lotus one would cost.

Here is a company that seems to do custom racks:
link
Its listed under pontiac but from what I'm reading they can do it for any application, here I found an old group buy for S13s, if you could contact the company and get others involved (intrest has been expressed by a number of members in multiple threads on the board) you could probably get a better rate than even a used lotus rack

keep in mind I'm no expert though you've got to do your homework

-Spargo

 

[jared]

I read somewhere about someone using a first gen mr2 rack. Quaffe makes a quick ratio kit for the mk1 as well ( I have one, they are not very $ at all).
I wonder if the kit can be adapted to the spyder rack to do a manual conversion as the same time as adjusting the ratio?

 

[Marko343]

Does anyone have any experience in doing the de-powering vs a registered manual rack? If I could find a used rack I would try and depower it and see how that works.

I'll contact that company and see what they could do for us and organize something for us.

 

[Kevin Beane]

I looked into going to a manual rack. De-powering or otherwise modifying something that starts out as power steering isn't really the same thing. It would have to be a custom job, but there are companies that specialize in this sort of thing. A Mustang II rack replacement is what I was going to use. Difficulties include mounting (not that bad - you'd have to fab some mounts), tie rod ends, and universal joint to intermediate shaft fitting. There's a topic on here that I started with some tech. info. I just didn't follow through because my car is a daily driver and I'd have to have it down for a few days, plus the cost would be a bit more than I wanted to pay.

Start reading on page 4 of this topic: http://spyderchat.com/forums/showthread.php?16087-Power-to-Manual-Steering-Conversion/page4

I was going to use Flaming River. It had to be their more expensive Universal rack, not the Mustang II replacement rack, but using a modified Mustang II tie rod end. I measured things and even bought a used Mustang II tie rod end. I found that the tapering of the Mustang II tie rod end was a problem and that's what had to be modified. Any machine shop could do it.

http://www.flamingriver.com/index.php/products/c0014/s0005/FR40022PLN

 

[driftingsw21]

I depowered my rack in my mk2 and drove it like that for years. On the spyder though I don't mind the feedback that I've had so far so no plans on that yet.