Well I started off today like all days..... EARLY. Figured I would go and get my front and rear bumpers repainted today, but as soon as I started up my car I noticed something.... man the steering is hard to turn this morning. I got out and looked under my car and seen a nice sized puddle of powersteering fluid under my car. GREAT my powersteering has blown up. Well I needed to get to work so I drove the Z without powersteering 33 miles to work, luckly its mostly interstate driving, but did it suck getting on and off the interstate. Got to work put the car in the air seen it was just a powersteering return line, whew it missed the alternator. Ordered some bulk hose from NAPA and some Dexron fluid. Long story short, 3 hours of fighting chipping and cutting I managed to get the old hose off and the new one on. Man who'd a thought a ten year old hose would be that much of a pain to get off. It had hardend on the pump and resivour rock hard. Cleaned up the clamps transfered them over to the new hose that I cut, and took about 15min putting on. Purged the powersteering system and got it topped off and operating again. Well that was easy.

While I had it up in the air I took a look see at a few things while I was thinking about them. The engine looks easiest to come out through the bottom of the car, 4 bolts hold the sub frame in and a few others the suspension to the subframe. That AC compressor is a breeze to get to if you go from under the car. The only thing that looked like a pain was the EGR tube. Hell even the Headers looked easy as hell to get off and get new ones on. This car has ALL SORTS of room if you look at it from the bottom. I even seen what Albert is tring to explain to you all about the tranny bell housing. They are two peices 1 for the bell housing and then the tranny. The bell housing looks much like any other housing but its seperate from the trans unlike most fords nowadays.

Well over all not a bad day, but I didnt get my bumpers sprayed so I will have to settle for just getting the rear bumper done tomarrow and hiding the front during Autofair this weekend. If only they would let me take a hot lap around the track (Lowes Motor Speedway), man those high embankment corners and long straights would be a BLAST.

sorry to hear about the hose...but you got it fixed so nothing hurt.

yeah there is alot of room underneath the engine bay, once you move alot of the underlying hoses. and there is even more room than you think once you get the radiator and fan shroud out.

Same problem happend to my old 300zx PS return hose. When i got it up on the lift and turned the wheel, it was pissin out, all over the plastic shield.

well good to hear u got it all taken care of hodo

power steering whats this??? lol ahh what ever it is it isnt the water pump or alternator so its gotta go lol

man i don't see how you can go without power steering... the plusses are just so much smaller than the minuses...

good to hear the alternator didn't get it there hodo, and that it was a relatively easy fix

what's wrong with your bumpers?

sounds good .. good thing it was a simple fix

My front bumper right in front of my headlights are fading, from oxidation and my rear bumper top part is baddly faded, almost grey/green. I am good at hiding it in the pictures.

well personnally i like the feed back of no power steering and i bet i can turn my wheel as fast as you and is easier to drift with and it all started with my camaro 350 conversion and it was a pain for like a month then i turned into popeye and when you compare the front end weight of a 84 camaro with a 350 in her without power steering to a 300zx with out the power steering i mean come on once you get used tio it you like it or atleasty i do and like i said i bet that i can spin my wheel as fast with you even with one hand (wanna drift) also i got a smaller steering wheel (14" i believe , its noticibly smaller) but i feel more connected to the road like this too easy with out it unless im in the lap of a luxurios car (such as my bonneville with premium carpet and leather seats and a back seat not to mention lol

but at any rate i prefer no power steering in a performance oriented car(and yes the spining of 6the wheel thats at a stop

well given that most race cars have powersteering, I will stick with it. I have seen the hell rally drivers go through without powersteering. I have also driven hard off road without powersteering in a Humvee when I was in the army, and let me tell you that SUCKS.

well personnally i like the feed back of no power steering and i bet i can turn my wheel as fast as you and is easier to drift with and it all started with my camaro 350 conversion and it was a pain for like a month then i turned into popeye and when you compare the front end weight of a 84 camaro with a 350 in her without power steering to a 300zx with out the power steering i mean come on once you get used tio it you like it or atleasty i do and like i said i bet that i can spin my wheel as fast with you even with one hand (wanna drift) also i got a smaller steering wheel (14" i believe , its noticibly smaller) but i feel more connected to the road like this too easy with out it unless im in the lap of a luxurios car (such as my bonneville with premium carpet and leather seats and a back seat not to mention lol

but at any rate i prefer no power steering in a performance oriented car(and yes the spining of 6the wheel thats at a stop

I've been trying to think of one professional driver or pro car that doesn't use power steering. Maybe you could teach us something Stephenp. Please I'm always looking for something better and making the driving easier.

well i dont know if your pokin fun but like i said it connects you more to the road you feel all the bumps and the car tells you what it wants to do
you can actuallyfeel not only in the cars effects but also in the feel of the wheel with no pwrstr
while in pwrstr you lose that due to the freeness of it as unlike the feel in the nonmpwr
hey maybe iots just me
i like nonpwr just because i dont know maybe it grows on you
but well i guess you never know till you try it and you cant try it and say oh this is too hard cuz then your giving up instead of terying

all im saying is i like it not anybody else has top and if i could ever be a quote race car driver ill do it with out the pwr then too
lkike i said your more connected if you ask me

Will being I come from the old school, before the automatic transmission was even invented, and power brakes and steering wasn't even on the engineer's drawing boards yet, I'll take the modern technology over the old school days any time as it allows for safer racing, less strain on the driver, and allows more time to focuse on the task at hand rather than on your arm-strong streering, 2 foot braking while trying to keep your engine in it's power band by shifting your cool standard transmission. Been there,seen that, and it sucks.

Amen Albert!

i can see where stephenp is coming from. there are different levels of power steering. some are much stronger than others and some are much weaker. in my sisters GX imprezza i can dive with, literally my little finger. The power steering is so insanely light it personally really sucks. it gives almost next to no feedback on what is going on. I recently took my GT4 Celica for a spin on the way back from the compliance center and i am really impressed with the power sterring on it. The steering has a really good amount of feedback in it while still being power steering.

i think what stephenp is getting at is that the more luxury style power steering that is uber light gives no feedback at all. which it doesnt. but there are some types of power steering that are great. My GT4 Celica is one of them and so was my old Lancer that i used to own.

its actually little to do with the powersteering itself, and more with the steering rack ratios and dampaning. These can be dialed out with caster adjustment but the effort needed to turn the wheel is all in the ratio and boost levels of the steering system. Even F1 cars and WRC Rally cars have and need powersteering.