I spent most of the day today struggling to remove the power steering pump and related stuff. This system is not typically run in Spec Miata. But short of installing a manual steering rack, the typical solution is to simply disable the power steering pump and then loop some of the fluid lines back on one another (after mostly draining the system).
I only intended to get rid of the power steering components but had a tough time getting some of the lines out from behind the radiator without removing it. Once the radiator was out, then it seemed like it should stay out in preparation for a radiator upgrade (either the Koyo or Springfield Dyno). Of course, before putting a radiator back in, I should also do a timing belt replacement and maybe a new water pump. Somehow I suspect it is going to be a while before the car is back in running condition.
Radiator-less Engine Compartment
Besides the time it took to remove everything, it also took me a while to figure out how to loop the system back. Nothing I read on the enthusiast web sites quite matched what I saw. Folks also seem to debate how to seal off the system. In the end, I did the loop back approach rather than the plugs that Advance Autosports sells. This required cutting one of the lines with a hack saw and then shortening one of the rubber lines to connect to one another. The end result can be seen in the following photograph.
Looped System
This job was also a big mess — or at least my approach to it created one. I had fluids all over the place. I spent a fair bit of time cleaning power steering and radiator fluid off of lots of bits n pieces (and the floor).
While I’m going through different parts of the engine compartment, I’m doing my best to clean off 10 years of accumulated grime, dust, and oil. My hope is to have a nice, clean engine compartment when I’m finished. For now, it is a work-in-progress on that score.
