71 dart power steering conversion to manual steering question

what about just removing the belt
Because that would be ridiculously unsafe.
This would be along the same thinking of removing the front brakes to save weight or because they were making noise.
''But officer, the car still stopped...........eventually.''
''But officer, the car still steered...........kinda.''
Explain that to the cops and insurance company when you have the inevitable accident why you modified a safety device on your car.
And to boot, if you convert a car from power to manual steering properly, you save a lot of weight on the front end and will also have more clearance for headers etc.