Chemmech

OK, alot of guys here go to the track. Anyway, I was on the freeway the other day and my power steering belt fell off the pulley. Besides the heavey steering wheel, I noticed a big gain in power. So here's my question, has anyone disconnected their power steering belt to get better times in the 1/4 mile?

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

Hmmmm.... First, wy did the belt come off?!?!

I'm sure it would pick up power, one less thing for your engine to drive. I don't know if something would be out of balance though

blader

doesnt sound like that good of an idea .. lol. that could probably damage something. why the hell would it slip off?

ChadT

Nothing will be out of balance but the battery would go dead eventually. Could probably do it for the track if you had a way to get it on and off quickly and just remove it for the runs. Once the battery starts to discharge I would think the gains would not be so great.

slo97cl

yeah i know alot of people take the belt off when they go to the track, you just have to make sure you give your car a good bit of time to cool down or put the belt back on and let it idle, caus ethe water pump doesn't pump with out the belt, te alt doesn't charge either, but it shaved .2 off my 1/4 in my mustang

darrinb

some peeps in civics always have it off

Chemmech

HEy I'm back. As for draining the battery, only the power steering pump is run by that belt. Even at 100 mph, the car was still extremely hard to steer.

The power steering mount bolts were loose, so the belt slipped off.

Joe5.0

Power steering is overrated, imo. I drove my probe with a broken PS pump and I managed fine. Sure it had higher effort, but if you're not a weakling its not that hard. Now, my stepdad's 55 Chevy with a 427 big block up front, thats hard to steer.

Mustang guys run a "shortbelt" all the time. Basically the belt doesnt turn the AC, smog, and PS pumps, from what I understand. Its worth a couple tenths anda mph or two.

IMO its kind of pointless, because thats not how you are gonna drive on the street, so whats the point? Kind of like gutting your interior, taking off the air filter, and running race gas for the track only. So what, it runs that speed with all that stuff done, what about the 99% of the time when its back to normal?

Chemmech

Just to see how fast the car will go I'd try it out, but yeah, removing the interior, air filter is a bit much.

BlueCLS6

I've been without power steering in my Accord for years. I took the belt off and it made a hude difference... turns out the pump was almost seized. So I removed the pump, reservoir, etc... But that car weighs 500 lbs. less than the CL so it's still manageable.

ChadT

Oh I didn't realize that. Thought everything was on one belt. How does the steering feel without it? I had an '84 Accord without PS and it had about the best steering feel of any car I've driven.

Chemmech

Defintely not a sporty feel to the car, without the power steering. I even tried going real fast, but the steering remained very heavy, and my tires are at 32 psi. Definitely not the way to drive the car on a daily basis.