Posted by Joe Divito (207.86.46.133) on January 03, 2001 at 19:02:19:
In Reply to: Re: power to manual steering swap posted by Danny Hardee on January 02, 2001 at 22:31:07:
: : There are 2 ways to do this. The first is to get the complete linkage assembly from a manual car, including the pitman arm. The second way is to keep everything you got and remove the power assist stuff & get an adaptor to screw in place of the valve assembly on the end of the draglink. They are sold at any Mustang supply house. You do not have to change the steering box either way. The Power steering box has a quicker steering ratio & would be more desirable.
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: Dennis, help me understand the adapter and its function. i understand that i need to remove the power assist pieces but what does the adapter look like and what is its funtion in place of the valve assembly. i too want to change over to manual steering from the so called power (its leaking again) assist. thank you.
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To answer your question, the adaptor sits in place of the valve assembly, and allows you to use the existing power steering pitman arm. The reason why the adaptor is recommended is that the valve assembly won't last long without the power assist from the power cylinder. You can steer the car without replacing the valve assembly, but Ford didn't engineer it to do that full time (only for emergencies, such as the engine stalling while the car was in motion).
Joe