'cause then it's stiff as hell. It's basically a shock absorber at that point - the rack is full of fluid, and you're pumping it back and forth through small passageways with your arms. Removing all the motivation for pumping and removing the extra passageways and friction will reduce the effort.

Lighter steering is safer steering.

You are welcome to my manual rack in my 80 DL for $0. I HATE that thing. The effort is nothing on 185/65-15 studded hakka 4s (not so true with 225/50-15 falken azenis), but the ratio kills me. Watching me drive fast is like watching a blur of arms. The good news is that it can't leak and it is real tight (not much to wear out really). The feel driving over frost on the freeway is real nice.

I'd try to find a nice 91-93 cam rack that is recently replaced in the JY. You can usually find one of those without a ton of fuss here. There is a 93 245 in the JY here with a clean one dated '05. Those have really quite nice feel in the last of the 240s and don't pee fluid all over the place if you keep synthetic in them with a magnet. I will probably do that as a stop gap while I save my pennies for a sellholm 2.5 or 2.0 turn rack with hard metal bushings and less assist and wait for the USD not to suck so horribly.

If you want to de-power the power rack, what Matt said. Gut/weld up the directional valve, remove the pistons and simply pack the rack gear with grease. De-powered power rack with the pump and everything still there I think is absolutely horrible...horrible to the point that I don't like the way the car handles.

Hmmm, cool. I'm thinking I'd like a 91-93 rack for sure, although the chances of me finding one here are indeed quite slim. I think my best option may be your manual rack James. I don't like the ratio thing, but I want this car to be bulletproof and cheap, and the idea of having one less pulley is also enticing. Can't you also buy quickeners for those racks?

Do I need different tie-rod ends for the non-power rack?
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

PM sent James.

New inspiration for project Smurf.



Nah, I'm not gonna put the big guard on the front, but this is the vibe I'm going for. Simple, roof rack, driving lights, made for long trips, and dead reliable. Nothing fancy. Oh, and lots of stickers.

dood...I want that big guard.

Coyotes and deer stay the heck away mwahahahhaa.

It's a good inspiration

Update time for this car.

First up....front swaybar replacement. Driving the car around corners sucked, even with the good suspension bits. Nuff said. Enter 23mm sway. It was a little bit rusty, so I ground all the rust off, primed and painted.

I decided to keep with the blue theme for this rig. No surprise there.
I also cleaned and painted the brackets.

Poly bushings in, and done!

Bling! Looks pretty ridiculous next to the oily mess down there, but its all good. The kitty litter pan is there to collect the remainder of the ATF in my steering rack. I came in one night to find a good 1/3 of the fluid on my garage floor after the car had sat for two days. The PS belt is now gone, and I'm looking for another rack.

Next up, big freaking driving lights.
This is my first foray into the world of wiring up lights properly. Never done it. So, I got some big freaking lights off Dale with 100 w. bulbs. Excellent. I decided top of the bumper was the place to be, out of the muck (also see previous inspirational photos). I did some measuring and comparing to ensure they were out of the way of my headlamps (soon to be 55/100 w. H4s). Once that was done, I cut a sliver out of the rubber trim around the bumper, with the goal of moving the lights slightly back, and to provide a hole for the wiring to run through.

After drilling the holes, I mounted the lights on top of some rubber washers I found in the plumbing section at Crappy Tire, so as to provide some vibration damping. I put in some extra o-rings for support.
The end result is the lights are slightly back of the bumper edge, just out of the way of trouble.

Onto the wiring. I had an original Volvo fog lamp switch also from Dale. That was wired to fuse #10, with the second switch wiring going through a hole left by our friends at Sears when they put in cruise control on this car some time ago.

I got a couple grommets to fill the hole, but left more room for the remaining wiring for my next headlight wiring job.
I decided to use the vacant spot on the junction block panel, nice and close to the battery, to house my Bosch relay.

Everything was shrink wrapped, and the area around the junction was cleaned and waxed while it was out. The fused connection was wired straight to the junction block, as there were a few vacant spots, and I hate crappy wiring coming off the battery. The relay ground is next to the panel as well.

After that, I wanted the wiring to be as clean and look as stock as possible. I ended up running it along the hood release cable line.

And then through the grommet below the rad tray. All the wiring here is 12 gauge.

The wiring on the lights was done with the supplied connectors using 12 gauge wire, then ran out the bottom, shrink wrapped, and sent through the holes I had cut in the rubber trim.

From there, the grounds were split off to ring connectors on the frame, while the power wires merged and ran through another grommet on the rad support.

I made the connection to power there, made my first (really ugly) soders (its harder than I thought), shrink wrapped it all, and then tucked it in behind the rad support.

I wanted everything to be out of the weather and clean.
How it all finally looks:

And TADA!

My excitement was tangible.
First flip of the switch, everything worked! The relay trips nicely, and the lights seem pretty bright. I have them pointed slightly in and down for now, as I have NO IDEA how to aim lights. I'll wait until I'm in the country sometime to set them up properly. But for now, I'm stoked.

Wicked, the sways and the lights look great. Now we gotta get a set mounted on the rear bumper for taking care of annoying Lethbridge drivers .

With two hit and runs on two of my vehicles in the past couple months, I couldn't agree more.

Woah big lights!!

What model are they? they look bosch to me, i was thinking of picking up the pilot 150s after I smashed my last set... get them aimed properly and take some pics!

as for soldering, use lots of flux, it makes a world of difference.

They're Bosch but I forget the model. They're about the biggest lights Bosch made, I think. I have 4 mounted on the bumper of the Suburban with 100W bulbs in them. Let's just say I don't out-drive the lights at night...

You should look at Gregg's Distributing - they have Hella FF500 and FF700s for pretty cheap. I got a pair of the 700s and Dale got a set of the 500s. Neither of us have mounted them yet.

Is Greggs just like any other store that I can waltz into?

whats the pricing like on their lighting? Their catalogue mentioned neither...

Yes, and it was $80-90 per pair, depending on the style.

OOOOO!!! 100/160W H4 bulbs!!!