Lude Generation

This will talk you through the stages of removing PAS completely. Simply removing the belt from the pump will not suffice as you'll be fighting to force the fluid through the rack each time you turn. However once you have followed these steps there is no simple means of putting it back again, so please make sure this is something you know you want to do

So... Firstly I jacked the car up. Removing the wheels firstly helped with getting in and out from under the car, plus also allowed a bit more light under there. But I mainly did this as she's going to be parked up for a while and I didn't want the tyres drying out...



Once under the car I started by removing the three 10mm bolts to remove the protective cover...



Once removed, that revealed the four pipes to contend with...



I carefully loosened and pulled the four pipes from the block and allow the fluid to drain into a suitable container... I chose a deep tray (the cat's old litter tray) to allow for splutter as I then turned the wheels from full lock to full lock to force as much of the fluid out as possible...



The less fluid in the steering rack, the less resistance there will be. You'll never get it all out, but the remaining dregs will act as a lubricant, so this is fine.

Whilst the fluid is draining I took the opportunity to stand again and start removing the components from the engine bay. I started with the belt and pump itself and then removed all the connecting pipework as I went. This made things easier and means I also don't have to describe every pipe to be removed to you

When doing this be careful as there will still be fluid in some of the pipes. It was also a lot easier to cut some of the pipes as well. Put it this way, once you've moved it, you'll realise you'll never want to put it back again, so you may as well make it as easy as possible to remove by cutting through When I came to removing the pipework from behind the block this is where things got awkward. It's very tight behind there and there are a few plastic clips and 10mm-bolted-down-brackets to remove which are a real pain! I persisted and eventually got them I found it easier to remove my induction kit as well.

For the last bit of pipework (to the steering rack) I needed to remove these from underneath the car again. I needed to keep the ends of these bits, so made sure the ends weren't damaged...



Once removed, all I had remaining of the PAS was this...



I then cut off the ends of the pipes like this...



Filed down the sawed-off ends and de-burred them. Making sure they were clean with no sworf.

These then needed to be re-connected to the steering rack like so...



I made sure the two larger pipes are roughly pointing towards one-another.

Then by salvaging some appropriate rubber pipe from everything that had been removed, I found two lengths and cut to size. I made sure these were of a reasonably tight fit and cut off any dried/cracked ends and connected up the pipe work in this sequence...



I salvaged some clamps as well.

Then I refit my freshly cleaned protective sheild...



Now I was done under the car

This just leaves one more connection to make...



These two pipes found under the throttle body...





I've not yet connected them. It's only a short connection to make. A length about 10cm long should do it, but one OD is 8mm, where as the other is 6mm and I have no such pipe to salvage. But I shall connect these up before anything else is done.

En Voila!... Power Assisted Steering removed

And look how much gumph has been removed ...



And look how much clearer she is now to! (remember I've already removed my aircon) ...









Excuse how grubby she is though

Added to wiki, repped!

Good job nathan. You beat me to it on the How2.
Rep on its way

Just to point one thing out:



Someone mentioned somewhere that they topped that up with PS fluid before looping it.

Also - you wouldn't happen to have any of those pipes left over would you? With the same fitting as the ones looping in the rack

JayJay wrote:Someone mentioned somewhere that they topped that up with PS fluid before looping it.

Also - you wouldn't happen to have any of those pipes left over would you? With the same fitting as the ones looping in the rack

Never heard that. They'd be no harm in topping it up, but there should still be enough fluid in there to keep the wangle gear lubricated. I plan to modify the VSS assembly as well. I'll post a how to on that in here when I eventually get around to doing it.

Afraid I don't bud. I binned all the scrap I had left over I think, and obviously used the fittings you'd be looking for to do mine.

Well that saves me a job
I was going to re-do the write up for PAS removal that I had before but Nathan has now covered that

So once you've done PAS Removal Stage 1 you can move onto PAS Removal Stage 2 if you really don't ever want to go back.

Here's the write up taken from my build thread


PAS Removal Stage 2 - Steering Rack Modification and more weight saving

In summary, ever since I first carried out the conversion I vowed I would never go back to having PAS on the Lude especially as a track car. Yes the low speed steering effort was quite high (this was reduced by running a decent amount of neg camber) and yes the mid corner loading might not be everyones cup of tea but the massive improvement in feedback and feel for grip levels more than compensated for the small vices.
Some suggested that the heavier steering would cause issues if the car was in a slide and you needed to apply opposite lock quickly but this proved to simply not be the case...if anything you could feel the slide starting earlier through steering weight change.
Anyway, years on and it's not that uncommon a modification to Preludes, Civics and Integras these days...I've carried out this mod many many times and I think only one person ever sort of regretted it...the rest just simply loved it.

Time for taking things to the next level then.
This was actually on my "to do" list long before I started with this full project but as with all good "to do" lists it never got done

I was keen to see if I could improve the feel even further and also reduce the steering effort just a little. I also absolutely hated the big heavy ugly mess that was the looped PAS lines and the steering rack valve body as seen here





So there was only one thing for it.... set to work with a spare steering rack and modify it to remove the unwanted PAS gubbins and also look at a way of improving the feel / resistance. There would also be the added bonus of shedding some more weight...not that I'm at all obsessed of course

Below is a bit of a summary of the work done, the full explanation and more pics can be found in the guide should you wish to do something similar.

Just as Honda intended. Standard BB4 PAS rack





The next 3 pics show all the main steering rack components laid out to see. Be warned there are a couple of sprung parts and there will be residual oil inside.
If you are unsure how these items come apart you should be able to see clearly from the "rebuilding" pics. Alternatively I suggest you refer to the Honda workshop manual for guidance as I forgot to take pics when stripping it all down










This is the centre of the steering rack itself. This is effectively a piston with hard wearing sealing ring. The pressurised fluid acts on either side of this to assist with the turn. The white band (sealing ring) creates a fluid tight seal in the piston tube. While we still want a "good fit" we don't need a fluid tight seal anymore so some careful filling around the sealing ring will help to reduce drag inside the rack once oiled/greased.






Here you can see that I have merged the two feed and return holes into one slot. This is so that each side of the piston can breathe into the other side when going from lock to lock. This would normally happen to the fluid under pressure through the 4 way valve body but that's gone now.






The steering rack "gearbox", rack, pinion, cylinder and sleeve were all then thoroughly cleaned ready for refitting.






Rack and piston seal greased well ready for refitting. The inside of the "gear housing" has also been well greased.





Rack installed back into gearbox housing and rack tube refitted.






Close up of the gear housing and the pinion holder bearing freshly greased. Note the two lugs in the bottom of the housing. These are stoppers for the pinion shaft holder which has a few degrees of movement to activate the 4 way valve pas fluid direction. This movement won't be acceptable as it will feel like slop in the steering thanks to no spring resistance.





The machined top edges of the pinion shaft holder. This machining allows the pinion to rotate a few degrees to left and right when fitted inside the gear housing. I want to eradicate this movement and also remove the just visible pin which is what used to operate the directional change in the 4 way valve








A good bead of weld was added to the machined faces and then gradually ground down until the pinion shaft holder was a tight fit in the gear housing against the lugs. Rotation eliminated.






The Pinion shaft holder was then greased and refitted into the "gearbox housing". This is then secured with a circlip.







Pinion gear and shaft thoroughly greased as well as the bearings inside the pinion shaft holder. These pics show the shaft on it's way in and then being secured in place with retaining circlip








More grease added to the gearbox assembly and pinion operation tested from lock to lock. Works a treat






Remainder of the gearbox components refitted such as the sprung adjustable rack guide, the pinion seal and pinion seal cover.
Tie rod (rack end) refitted and greased.
Grease added to end of rack and gaitor re-fitted










The weighty 4 way PAS valve and associated parts. These are effectively left over parts now
Note the fabricated ally plate that will be used to seal off the gearbox housing and valve orifices in place of the now redundant valve body






With a thin bead of sealant the finishing plate was then bolted into place. This will prevent both the grease seaping out and of course water/dirt getting in.








The finished lighter and more tidy looking non PAS steering rack. Just by working it lock to lock by hand on the pinion shaft I can already feel it's a definate improvement over the previous set up. Should feel noticable improvements once back in the car too and of course that's a bit more weight saved










And finally a quick comparison of before and after on the car







As usual thanks for looking, any comments, feedback or questions welcomed


Rich

Very nice

You wouldn't happen to have the old hoses from the valve body lying about would you

Pretty sure they've been binned I'm afraid

Argh. Cheers anyway Might try and find someone breaking a lude.

^^^

Bravo Rich. I eventually plan on doing the same ... But really need to get the rest of the car together and up to see you first

+ Rep