Ok - everyone who's off-roaded with both give me your opinion on power steering - my 84 GL10 wagon has PS right now, and the parts car doesn't, so I could switch. I've done some off-roading in both types, and have always liked having the PS personally. However, my experience has been on radically different chassis. The PS on a Hummer is hard to compare to the manual steering of a Deuce. My preference of the two is the Duece, but probably more because of it's climbing ability than it's manual rack. I love those trucks - they will climb trees!!

 

GD

Dueces with power steering are the best though. If your going to be putting on big tires and the lot, then you'll prolly want power steering. There are of course up sides and down sides to all. Good point is that it's easier to steer when your going slow through rocks and stuff. Downside is that it does pull power from the motor that could be helping to turn those tires. Personally I wish that I had PS on the Brat, would have made life a lot easier. The good side, I've got forearms like Popeye!! Depends on what you have to sacrafice. Catch ya Laters.

Yeah - I once drove a Duece with PS - it was the Air Guard's tho, and they didn't like me touching it. We only have the OLD style - 70's and older in my unit, so no A3's around for me to play with. I agree tho - the PS is nice when going slow. Anyone know if offroading is particularly hard on the PS racks in the EA81's? There's probably not many of you using them, but I don't want it to fail after only a few runs. Anyone got any stories?

 

GD

Hi, my recent '82 has it. It was allegedly professionally installed. The story on this car is yet another post. I have had it both ways, and for my money, it uses too much horsepower. However, off road, it is very nice. It doesn't take much to take the belt off, which also drives the AC unit. So for around town, it is a total waste, off road, it would be nice, but I'll take the ponies, Bradd

huh - that's interesting - you say the same belt drives the AC? My 84 has two belts - one for AC, and the other for PS, and yet another for the Alt.

 

GD

I just rebuilt my motor and decided not to put the PS back in. At 55 mph you cant tell it's gone but, tring to park with a coffee in one hand is alot tougher now. I like to rip around in the woods so, a lot of shifting and one handed stering is going on. PS is good in these conditions so I am going to reinstall my PS. Even though it's absence added some power. My tires are 185/70/13 with alloy rims

The belt difference is because Subaru used two different A/C setups. The Hitachi units went into the low-end Soobs (DL) and some GLs. The rest of the GLs with a/c and the GL-10s got the Matsu****a a/c. I believe this is because the Matsu****a unit was smaller, and there's more junk under the hood of the more "upscale" cars. I could be wrong, though. (In my personal experience the Hitachi is the better of the two units.)