[Dave-Gold/Red62]

The power steering box on my '62 hardtop is leaking pretty steadily. My local Ford dealer won't touch it, and I can't find anyone in the Louisville area that has replaced one before. I don't want to pay someone a lot of money who doesn't know what the hell they're doing. Instead of spending $500+ to have it repaired I was wondering if I could remove or disconnect it and just drive it as if it had manual steering. I've owned a couple of full-sized Fords and Edsels without power steering and am familiar with how they drive, and it's not a problem for me. My question is how easy would it be to disconnect and/or remove the system, and how would I go about doing that? What are the pros and cons of doing this, if I did have it repaired about how much should I be prepared to pay a competent mechanic to do it, and who would you suggest I buy the power steering box from?