Manual steering conversion?

[yossarian19]

Ok, call me crazy, but I'm thinking about putting a manual steering box from a YJ into my Cherokee.
Hear me out -
The gear box in my '98 XJ is worn out. Big dead spot. Also, the PS lines leak. And I'm getting interested in hyper-miling the Cherokee (I get bored sometimes). A manual YJ box is dirt cheap, should bolt right in, & I can get a junkyard PS pump to gut & turn into a dummy pully for, you guessed it, a few bucks. So I'd be in it for maybe $100, about the same as replacing my leaky / worn PS box.
So, wild ass guesses, how much fuel does the PS pump actually soak up? I'm not going to ditch power steering for anything less than 1 mpg, 1.5 and I'm sold on manual steering.

 

[Lowrange2]

I had a 86 MJ with a set of 29" tall tires and manual steering for a very short period of time. I got rid of that crap.

I honestly didn't notice any MPG differences between that truck and the XJ with power steering...

There's no way in hell I'd go to manual steering to save any MPG. Manual is fine down the highway, riding through a parking lot and trying to park sucks.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

if your gear box is dead, why not just bolt up the Yj box and run that with your PS pump as is? drill frame for 4th bolt and call it done.

 

[Lowrange2]

if your gear box is dead, why not just bolt up the Yj box and run that with your PS pump as is? drill frame for 4th bolt and call it done.

Because it's a manual YJ gear box.

 

[Mnkyboy]

You could just get the PS delete pulley off a 2.5l it just fits in place of the pump.

My truck started life without powersteering, IMO adding it is one of the best mods I have done to the truck.I couldn't imagine wanting to take it back off.

I also saw no noticeable change in fuel mileage or power by adding it.

 

[yossarian19]

Hmm.
I'm getting a lot of mixed reports about mpg, power & power steering. Also, I mis remembered the price of a manual gear box - it's about 3x what I thought. Don't think I'll be doing this one.

 

[Lowrange2]

Oh yeah, I meant to mention that as well. Manual gear boxes are HIGH. It's far cheaper to convert to power if you need to replace a manual box.