davidwort

I hope they're better than the ones I had from GSF a few years back, the fronts were fine, but the rears were so riduculously hard that there was virtually no movement when I jumped up and down on the rear bumper! great for steering response on smooth roads but made the back very bouncy and unbearable for (the occasional) back seat passenger :lol:

I don't think the racks themselves actually wear much really, it's usually other components like inner track rod joints that feel like they are the rack. But, play and feel under steering loads can be very different to any play you might be able to detect with parts off the car. I reckon it stands to reason that the centre part of the rack, and just a few mm either side where you steering is positioned 99% of the time, will show some wear over the years, even if it's not really visible in the parts and not felt with the bits off the car. The problem with recon racks is that parts like that are pretty much always 'within tolerance' so just get reused. It's the addition of tiny amounts of play in the UJ, rack, inner joints, outer joints, bearings and bushings that all add up. I've replaced just about everything apart from the rack and UJ, and although they don't show any play moved by hand there is still a bit of vagueness in the 'straight-ahead' position. Miles better though after I replaced the whole track rods, interestingly, the 150K ends were solid-as, it was the inner joints that had clonking movement in them.

I did this to fit koni inserts on my valver basically you need to hammer round the collar to unscrew it as my old valver shocks were welded one piece boge ones I needed to get hold of some VAG ones first these came off a passat and worked just fine depending on how corroded the tops are they can be easy or a mare to remove, but all I've tried do come off given a hard enough belt, I used a blunt cold chisel and a club hammer to knock the caps round one other point, some inserts don't sit quite high enough in the empty legs for the screw top to clamp down on, in this case I filed about a millimetre of the top of the leg (top of the threaded part) and they worked fine Koni inserts specify anti freeze of all things, to be added into the leg before inserting the damper, my old VAG polo legs had light oil in them, but this was the actual damper fluid, aftermarket units are usually sealed with their own oil in, the Koni ones seem to specify this extra fill in the leg for cooling/heat dissipation I think.

yes you can, basically a bar that fits between the front wishbones bush bolts on the subframe, but then the Corrado subframe is pretty well engineered anyway so I'm doubtful it makes much difference, unlike the old mk 1's.

if the rack is actually leaking fluid then new seals are obviously a good idea, otherwise I'd leave it alone, if the rack is slightly worn, especially in the straight ahead position, then it'll always feel a bit vague, (not that they ever seem to wear excessively) they usually get like this after 100K or so, only real cure is a brand new rack or a low mileage one, re-con racks are basically what you're trying to do, an old one checked for excessive wear and then new seals fitted, OK for an old hack but not what you'd ideally want on a Corrado.

22mm is a 1989 16v, in fact I think they all have the same, even the mk3 golf 16v has a 22mm one too.

I fitted the passat parts just to see the effect of moving the pivot point on the throw, you can't actually use it without cutting and welding as the bottom ball sits too low to operate the side to side action relay lever underneath, I will have a go at it though, especially as I won't be modding any of the original Corrado bits.

Hi Thank you for this excellent piece. Just a simple question. The left to right movement of the gearstick is transferred to up and down movement of the gear shifter in the engine compartment. What mechanism does this ? not sure exactly what you mean, but, the ball at the base of the gearlever plate moves another small lever arrangement which translates into forward/back motion of the selector cable at the gearbox end, the top one of the two levers on the selector tower is moved back and forth by the cable (top one of the two cables on the later cars bracket over the gearbox, left one, from front of car on the earlier ones), the shift tower mechansim translates that movement into an up/down motion, this is the part of the later cars system that causes problems with breaking as part of it is a brittle black plastic piece clamped to a metal lever, it's hard to explain but pretty obvious if you get someone else to move the gearlever left to right and you watch the tower on top of the gearbox.

those numbers are in the 'comparison' coloured table in the 4th image from the top. [strike:3tpg4zt7]I'll add details in the original post at the top[/strike:3tpg4zt7] no I won't, already reached max no. of attachments! I'll do it here :) Some info on 'gearbox end' shift towers - added 9/3/08 The 02A cable change boxes from the initial passat boxes launched in 1988, up to the late facelifted passat in 1996 have a series of re-designed shift towers with minor variations as VW tweaked them. All seem to work in any age of 02A box, but some require a change of bottom bearing which requires the oil to be drained and re-filled, if you have a post 92 Corrado, the bottom bearing is the bit under the box, in line with the shift tower above, that has a VW emblem cast into the cap, pre 91/92 cars don't have the emblem, all designs are held in with two bolts and a bit of sealant which can make them tricky to remove. stromlaufplan_gamma4.pdfImg_3740.jpg[/attachment:3tpg4zt7] the main difference in the towers is the re-design of the selector lever (left to right movement of gearlever), this moves from being mounted side-by-side with the shift cable on the pre 92 boxes to mounted one above the other on the post 92 cars, a re-designed braket on top of the gearbox with 3 mounting points rather than two is the biggest visual clue to the type. If you change types the braket needs changing too. Cables stay the same though. On the selector lever the post 92 item has a plastic connector for the end of the cable, a rather strange design which itself has had several variations in part numbers but all of them are prone to breaking as they're made out of brittle plastic, easy to mould for production but a daft idea. The latest of the shift towers on the last of the passats (and presumably mk3 GTI's) is shown below, this has a few unique points, but as Steve found, still seems to work fine in an early 02A box. Corrado92.pdfIMG_3750.jpg[/attachment:3tpg4zt7] below is a mid production item with later style selector top, but not the cut out and sprung bearing of the late one above. passat climatronic wiring diags.pdfIMG_3751.jpg[/attachment:3tpg4zt7] the next photo is of the late bottom bearing (with the VW emblem) which needs to be used with the 16mm shaft, post 92 type tower. climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfIMG_3746.jpg[/attachment:3tpg4zt7] just to add to the confusion, it seems that around 1991, VW tried the new style tower selector top with the early 15mm bottom bearing/shaft, these make swapping to the later design easier as you don't have to remove the bottom bearing from an early box and drain the oil, I haven't tried one back to back with the late 16mm shaft yet so I don't know if the 16mm shaft makes them better, that's the type Steve is using from a 1995 Passat on his 1990? g60 golf. What really puzzled me about the 1991 passat one in the pic below is it has a different shaft (15mm) early type but the same part number to the 16mm shaft one from the 1993 car, only way to check is look at the top of the selector mech, if it has the later style with cables above one another, but the old bottom bearing cap underneath (no VW emblem) then it's one of these hybrid ones. 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdflabelled towers.jpg[/attachment:3tpg4zt7] The other thing to note is that the post 91/92 type of tower has a shift weight bolted to the shift cable end, these can be retro-fitted to 1988-91 16v cars, but may foul the PS reservoir a bit (don't think this is a problem on G60), you can just about get away with it and it does make even the early tower feel a bit more positive in engaging gear, although I think Steve has been trying a fully re-bushed system with and without the weight and can't decide which feels best :) p1.jpg[/attachment:3tpg4zt7]

think it's totally clear, but will have another look at some point and see if I can see what you mean.

cut mine off, it was just sliding around anyway as the paint is all flaking off the driveshaft, doesn't make any difference as far as I can tell, VR6's don't have them anyway, not sure you can even buy them from VW without a complete driveshaft, if you refit one then there are precise measurements about exactly where it goes:

my vote goes to the 42mm, if possible internally polished and port matched to the head, it's not just the runners that are a different diameter, the chamber after the throttle is a different size too so there's a bit more redesign than is first apparent. At least one valver I've seen has only gained 1bhp top end for the loss of a lot more torque swapping manifolds over back-to-back, and mine has no breathing difficulties at all with a flowed KR head and cams.

oh, well, should have thought of that first :) , anyhow another pic just if you wanted to check what was what:

this is passat info, but should be right: 2.8l 24v Climatronic system.pdfp194.jpg[/attachment:1u2a3bvx] and this from another source for the corrado to '92 torque_front.gif[/attachment:1u2a3bvx]

It's about in proportion to the capacity increase (10%), so you'll get something like 140lb/ft torque (from what it was, around 125) and another 10-15bhp roughly, possibly a bit more. It doesn't change the nature of the 16v, and with the same cams you'll still have the 4000rpm 'on-cam' feeling, but you do get more grunt throughout the rev range which makes it nicer to drive.

I think they do, sounds like someones fed you duff info, I bought 4 for my 16v from VW, they are a superceded part, the item you need is 6N0 411 329, it's basically a polo part replacing the old mk2 golf part. I doubt they are discontinued as it's suspension bushing. Cost me just over a quid each for them.

Don't bother with a VAG cam cover gasket if they're more expensive than elsewhere, I've tried GSF and a FEBI one from AVS, as well as a new VAG one, no difference in them, they're all prone to leaking at the arcs over the ends of the exhaust cam, doesn't seem to make any difference whether I clean the mating surfaces really well or even put blobs of sealant in the corners, i think they're just a rubbish design. The last one I bought was under a tenner, so don't pay much for one. Unless the plug electrodes are really fouled, I wouldn't have thought it's that causing your problem though.

to be fair it's a very 'dealer specific' thing, some VW owners have good things to say about their local dealers even on the older cars, it tends to be the bigger dealers with a big focus on sales that have poor service departments, but I know for a fact that if they keep their sales figues up high then they keep their franchises, almost regardless of service complaints against them.

wouldn't have thought it's an earth but it would be a good idea to check the straps anyway on the age of car, you should have one from the head to the coil mounting bracket and the big one for the starter direct to the battery -ve I'd check your plugs again, see how clean they all are, will help to see whether it's related to one cylinder or all and so whether it's one plug/lead or before the distributor in the ignition system, check the dizzy/cap inside to make sure there's no arcing or oil from the seal to the head in there electrical stuff tends to break down under heaviest load as that's the point at which weaknesses like high resistances show themselves in electrics, so it sounds less likely it's fuel related, coils are usually pretty reliable the hall sender might be playing up, but generally they just die, give no signal to the ECU and so you get no spark at all. One other thought, at low revs under high load the inlet vacuum is highest, might be worth checking the vacuum hose to the ECU from the manifold.

I thought all corrados did that anyway :lol: I know what you mean though, it felt like I was driving an old FIAT, interior-wise

as posted elsewhere, you can use any rack from the Corrados, incl VR6's and Golf mk3 GTI, 16v and VR6, plus 2L 16v SEATs all you need to do is use the 16v tie rods and the correct UJ to the column (splines change), 36-spine up to 1992, 22 afterwards

Very crude explanation and not the full picture but..[/quote:3tgl20js] yep, that makes sense then, the 2L 16v 9A/6A was cammed so it red-lined at about 6500, although the head and block will take more than 7,500rpm with the existiong valvegear they do get a bit rough at high revs the ABF in the mk3 has more 1.8 16v/KR-like cams, in fact even more lift, and so to keep a 1.8-like red-line and smoothness to suit, they lengthened the block and used longer rods even though displacement stays the same both 9a (bubble block) and ABF (tall block) will make a powerfull 2.1, it's just the ABF will make it more smoothly, not to mention that the ABF heads have modified valvegear from the KR and 9A type ones The ABF was afterall the final development of the VW group KR 16v engine

the VR6 gearbox mount is a different part to the 4cyl cars, but ETKA describes it as just a bonded rubber mounting, as opposed to hydraulic for the other mounts descriptions. I'd imagine the VR6 is so much smoother than the 4 cyl engines that you can get away with the rear mounts being stiffer and still have it quiet at idle. I didn't like a firmer main rear mount in my 16v, it was generally noisier all the time, but at idle it felt like everything was going to shake itself loose, particularly with a cold engine, sitting in traffic you'd have ended up with 'vibration-white-finger' :lol:

don't think you can source the seals from anywhere easily, I suppose the rack refurbishment companies get them from some source, but I think you'd have a job buying one set retail even if you could find a supplier. really, I think you're looking at a second hand rack, £25 upwards, a recon rack 150-350 quid or a VW one from a dealer £££?

I'm not exactly sure, but it may be down to the crank used, making it longer throw but still retaining the shorter rod ratio compared to the ABF. I wouldn't bore a 1.8 again myself, I had one, the 2.0 blocks not only have the correct piston oil squirters which you have to remove when fitting a 2L crank in a 1.8, but the 2.0 litre blocks have better water jackets, I had the two side by side and they look quite different. I'd imagine the 2.0 block is better at cooling the bores and doing more evenly on a high power motor than over-stretching the 1.8 casting.