manual steering rack ?'s

XxWhiteNeonxX · Post by **XxWhiteNeonxX** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:31 pm

1) i want to convert my car to manual rack. my question is, will the manual rack setup from the base model neons work?? ( direct bolt up)
2) Will my vehicle pass Pa inspection with a manual rack?
3)what all do i need besides the manual rack? do i need new tierods. etc...

-Cody

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:40 pm

There is no "bolt in" manual rack for a 2nd gen Neon since there was no manual steering option. A 1st gen manual rack will work, but an adaptor has to be made to allow it to be mounted to the crossmember. You will also need the u-joint from a 1st gen to work with your steering column.

XxWhiteNeonxX · Post by **XxWhiteNeonxX** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:44 pm

Danteneon wrote:There is no "bolt in" manual rack for a 2nd gen Neon since there was no manual steering option. A 1st gen manual rack will work, but an adaptor has to be made to allow it to be mounted to the crossmember. You will also need the u-joint from a 1st gen to work with your steering column.

i read on neons.org that if i just take the ps out my steering would be quicker than if i got a manual rack from a 1st gen
Another question is, ive seen people loop the lines when they take the pump off. My question is why??

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:09 pm

If you are woried about inspection (or your safety), don't loop your lines. Here's why....

The way a power rack works is the system uses a pump to move fluid through the system to assist the steering effort. We all know this. The rack is designed to have fluid in it to work. If you remove the pump you still have fluid to try to move the rack through without the assist of the pump. Not good. Remove your P/S belt once to see how this feels.

The next logical step would to just remove the fluid, right? OK, so now you have a rack that has a ratio designed for power assist with out the assist. The effort will be less than it would be with fluid in it, but still without the faster ratio of a manual rack. That leads to another problem...

The power rack is made to have fluid in it. Without it, the seals and o-rings inside have no lubrication to keep them from drying up. Worse case senerio is that the o-ring for the inner tube rolls into the rack teeth. No matter how strong you are, once that happens, whatever direction you are pointing is the way you go till the crash.

The 'work around" for this last problem is to leave a little bit of fluid in the rack and loop the lines so the fluid can move as the rack works. While this mantains fluid in the rack, it isn't under any pressure so there is no way to make sure the seals stay lubricated.

If a good inspector catches looped lines, he will fail your car just for the reasons above. I had done this to my car until I learned about this. Wasn't worth the risk IMO.

gtxtreme19 · Post by **gtxtreme19** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:17 pm

Don't remove your power steering, ever got out of a parallel parking spot without PS? 97 point turn FTL!

XxWhiteNeonxX · Post by **XxWhiteNeonxX** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 6:29 pm

Danteneon wrote:If you are woried about inspection (or your safety), don't loop your lines. Here's why....

The way a power rack works is the system uses a pump to move fluid through the system to assist the steering effort. We all know this. The rack is designed to have fluid in it to work. If you remove the pump you still have fluid to try to move the rack through without the assist of the pump. Not good. Remove your P/S belt once to see how this feels.

The next logical step would to just remove the fluid, right? OK, so now you have a rack that has a ratio designed for power assist with out the assist. The effort will be less than it would be with fluid in it, but still without the faster ratio of a manual rack. That leads to another problem...

The power rack is made to have fluid in it. Without it, the seals and o-rings inside have no lubrication to keep them from drying up. Worse case senerio is that the o-ring for the inner tube rolls into the rack teeth. No matter how strong you are, once that happens, whatever direction you are pointing is the way you go till the crash.

The 'work around" for this last problem is to leave a little bit of fluid in the rack and loop the lines so the fluid can move as the rack works. While this mantains fluid in the rack, it isn't under any pressure so there is no way to make sure the seals stay lubricated.

If a good inspector catches looped lines, he will fail your car just for the reasons above. I had done this to my car until I learned about this. Wasn't worth the risk IMO.

alright, well that answers my questions.
Guess ill just leave it for now

Post by **Canada** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:45 pm

Change over to a Shadow rack or do a little work and modify the 1st gen one to work.

XxWhiteNeonxX · Post by **XxWhiteNeonxX** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:10 pm

Canada wrote:Change over to a Shadow rack or do a little work and modify the 1st gen one to work.

what exactly is a shadow rack?

gtxtreme19 · Post by **gtxtreme19** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:54 pm

Dodge shadow

XxWhiteNeonxX · Post by **XxWhiteNeonxX** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:11 pm

gtxtreme19 wrote:Dodge shadow

oooo.. i thought that was the company lol

so whats all involved with doing a shadow rack swap??

hybrid-Srt2001 · Post by **hybrid-Srt2001** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:11 pm

why would you want to do this? not worth it imo. I have done it on my 2gn and it was super hard to turn and not worth the gain. my race car on the other hand where every pound counts...

but it's your car, so the easiest way like dante said is to loop the lines on your stock rack.

I used a true manual rack from a 95 neon and fabricated a bracket to make it work.

Post by **occasional demons** » Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:06 pm

viewtopic.php?t=46663

To be correct, the 2gn ACR and R/T have 18:1, and the SE/SXT are 16:1 ratios. (Since this thread is old....)
viewtopic.php?t=22158