How To: Power to Manual steering Conversion

Topics that apply to all 92-95 civics
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By Prodegsivic
- Tue Jan 10, 2012 10:05 am #289283 it's not a big deal to swap for manual, just need the old rack out the way and a friend that can work for beer. i want power for my hatch after comparing it to my fo-do power. heavy but budda.
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By EG Love
- Tue Jan 10, 2012 3:36 pm #289311 I was talking about swapping my leaky power rack for a manual one with someone on youtube who seemed to have a lot of experience with hondas, and apparently the power racks have a much quicker and aggressive steering ratio (compared to manual racks), with integra ones being ideal. So I suppose I will just swap my leaky civic rack for a power integra one, and loop the hose, and try and make everything somewhat tucked and hidden away. Part of the reason for removing my power steering was to help my bay become more empty and clean, so I don't really want a hose and filter sticking out, also spraying fluid on everything.. I still find the whole process somewhat barbarish. Like, do the top of the line high performance honda's have a looped hose from Home Hardware?

By EJ1_MK
- Wed Jan 11, 2012 1:06 am #289384
EG Love wrote:I was talking about swapping my leaky power rack for a manual one with someone on youtube who seemed to have a lot of experience with hondas, and apparently the power racks have a much quicker and aggressive steering ratio (compared to manual racks), with integra ones being ideal. So I suppose I will just swap my leaky civic rack for a power integra one, and loop the hose, and try and make everything somewhat tucked and hidden away. Part of the reason for removing my power steering was to help my bay become more empty and clean, so I don't really want a hose and filter sticking out, also spraying fluid on everything.. I still find the whole process somewhat barbarish. Like, do the top of the line high performance honda's have a looped hose from Home Hardware?


Yes, they mostly use NPT fittings and AN line to loop them with but most pro racer do this and Quaife make a kit for the manual rack to have a better ratio than a power rack as well so there are always options out there. But looping the lines works just as well as anything does. and also saves you time hunting down the sub frame and all the parts for the quaife kit.

By bks84
- Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:56 pm #289698
EJ1_MK wrote:
EG Love wrote:I was talking about swapping my leaky power rack for a manual one with someone on youtube who seemed to have a lot of experience with hondas, and apparently the power racks have a much quicker and aggressive steering ratio (compared to manual racks), with integra ones being ideal. So I suppose I will just swap my leaky civic rack for a power integra one, and loop the hose, and try and make everything somewhat tucked and hidden away. Part of the reason for removing my power steering was to help my bay become more empty and clean, so I don't really want a hose and filter sticking out, also spraying fluid on everything.. I still find the whole process somewhat barbarish. Like, do the top of the line high performance honda's have a looped hose from Home Hardware?


Yes, they mostly use NPT fittings and AN line to loop them with but most pro racer do this and Quaife make a kit for the manual rack to have a better ratio than a power rack as well so there are always options out there. But looping the lines works just as well as anything does. and also saves you time hunting down the sub frame and all the parts for the quaife kit.


I didnt have to hunt anything down... I went to Honda ordered a new rack end bushing and grommets ($35-$50), cut the retainer off the pinion slide the pinion bearing off and pressed it onto the QSR pinion and it went together as smooth as butter!

Cant wait to see how it compares!
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By EG Love
- Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:39 pm #302213 For now I'm just gonna loop the lines, but in the future, I will most likely go with the manual rack and subframe with that kit too.

All I'm worried about is fluid spraying out of my breather, and ruining the hours of cleaning I've put into cleaning my engine and bay.. I also hate that I won't know how much fluid is in my rack, and that I'd have to add fluid to it all the time. I guess I'm just over-thinking it. Perhaps I will lead the breather into a container to catch the excess fluid or something. Thanks for the info
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By josh93coupe
- Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:08 am #313771
EG Love wrote:For now I'm just gonna loop the lines, but in the future, I will most likely go with the manual rack and subframe with that kit too.

All I'm worried about is fluid spraying out of my breather, and ruining the hours of cleaning I've put into cleaning my engine and bay.. I also hate that I won't know how much fluid is in my rack, and that I'd have to add fluid to it all the time. I guess I'm just over-thinking it. Perhaps I will lead the breather into a container to catch the excess fluid or something. Thanks for the info


I am worried about the same thing, i just painted my bay, and dont want fluid going everyplace :/ might try using the resivore
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By rootbeer_eg
- Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:42 am #313772 ive helped my friends do a looped rack in 2 integras

one in a gsr which is still working fine
we took out as much fluid as we possibly could , becasue if you have to much in there you are pushing the fluid around and thats its a beotch

in the other integra he didnt know how much fluid he needen in there so he just took the resivoir off and looped the lines and there was way to much fluid in the rack and holy shit it was hard to drive. he later went on to driving over a pot hole and sheering his tie rod and we did a manual rack swap into it from an eg civic

world of difference between the two , manual rack is way better in my opinion

By EJ1_MK
- Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:46 am #313774 Manual racks are nice, if you loop them right or just drain and plug the lines you can drive on a power rack with out fluid for a while.

I prefer manual racks less to deal with.
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By EG Love
- Sun Aug 19, 2012 12:53 pm #313779 What I did was I followed this DIY exactly, except instead of using a breather on the end, I put a clutch reservoir on the end and zip tied it behind/under my intake manifold onto one of the lines on the firewall. I can still reach down to check if it has fluid and a long funnel will reach it too. I've driven the car a couple thousand kms so far and I've gotten used to it quite a bit, although i do need to use 2 hands when im rolling very slowly.. I'm still interested in trying out the manual rack, I suspect it would be a lot easier to turn like people have been saying
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