My wife and I have a 91 RS and would like to know if there is a simple way to make the steering effort lighter. She has nerve damage in her hands and wrists and extended driving in this car is painful even with that slight increase in effort.

Is there a valve I can change in the pump or the rack or?

The car has the F41 suspension, new 235/55 R16 tires, and was aligned about one month ago. I keep the tire pressure at about 34psi -- makes it a bit easier to turn the wheel.

Thanks!

 

My 85 trans am had a MUCH lighter steering than my 89 Formula does. She might have the "quick ratio" steering box. If you swapped a stock box it would help her a lot.

 

A simple solution would be to take it to an alignment shop were they do custom alignmets. Some dealerships will do this for you. You need to reduce the amount of caster. I would't take it to zero degrees, but 2-3 degrees should leave you with decent handling and a much easier to steer wheel

 

I did a Google search and discovered this link:

http://jeffd.50megs.com/Pump_valve_mod_page.htm

This might also be worth investigating further; several other links stated that you can have a quick-ratio box built with custom degrees of effort. Perhaps these sorts of valve modifications are involved.