Power Steering Is For Little Girls

Project Toyota Corolla AE86

Power Steering Is For Little Girls
That's really not true. If anything, it's the other way around, since there's a good reason why manual steering is all but extinct. Anyone who insists on manual steering over power is still living in the Dark Ages. Only mid-engine sports and race cars still use manual steering, as there's little weight sitting on the front axles and it requires less hardware and space. We just didn't have an option-Project Corolla came equipped with power steering, but all the hardware was cannibalized long ago. All that was left was a sloppy power rack with fluid gushing everywhere. Bang for buck and weight, it was cheaper to go with a manual steering conversion, although there are drawbacks on track and in everyday use.

The swap to manual steering is a double-edged sword. It offers more steering feedback, giving a driver immediate information on how the front tires are loaded, without the buffering benefits of power steering. But a manual system will kick back through the steering column just as immediately and violently. In most cases, a lack of power-assisted steering also means that manual cars have a higher steering ratio and thus slower steering, making steering effort easier for the driver.

We didn't want to do the standard conversion and end up with sloppy econobox steering. So we opted to update our manual rack with a Quaife Quick Steering Ratio (QSR) rack-and-pinion kit made specifically for left-hand-drive AE86 Corollas. The kit replaces the internals of the Corolla's stock manual rack with a lower steering ratio, from 3.5 turns lock-to-lock down to 2.5. This is done by changing the diameter of the pinion and modifying the teeth on both parts.

However, the conversion isn't simply a matter of bolting in a new manual rack-and-pinion. Most parts are too costly to buy new and almost impossible to pillage from junkyards.

On the AE86, there are several differences that need to be addressed. The manual rack itself is somewhat rare in the US, as most Corollas came here with power steering. And the only other vehicle to share the same part was the first-generation MR2. We were able to locate one through Df Power Rebuilding in Buena Park, California, which specializes in rebuilding steering racks and CV joints. Diego Figueroa at Df Power was able to locate and rebuild a manual rack with the Quaife QSR components within a couple of days. That was the easy part.

Finding the rest of the bits and pieces was the hard part. We took Project Corolla down to Diamond Bar Auto Care to help us deal with dropping the front subframe, pulling the steering column and the modifications needed to make a manual steering car. Power rack housings have a larger diameter and use different mounting brackets and bushings on the passenger side, so it can't just bolt in.

We replaced the driver-side bushing with a polyurethane unit from Prothane, while the passenger- (right-hand) side bushing was replaced with a CNC-machined Derlin bushing from Techno Toy Tuning (T3), made specifically for a power-to-manual steering conversion, since Toyota has discontinued the bracket and bushing parts.

The T3 bushing instructions require a bead of weld to be laid down along the rack housing to keep the bushing from sliding around on the rack, but we just drilled some holes and inserted pins into each half of the bushing to keep it in place. Our concern for the difference in stiffness of the two materials wasn't noticeable in steering feel, since the stiffer Derlin bushing was so much thicker and had more material to deflect.