davidwort

OK, I found an Ibiza rack this morning, but it's on a 25,000 mile 2002 car and the scrappy wants 100 quid (including removal from ibiza). So that doesn't exactly seem a bargain, but as delivery won't cost me anything it seems close to what you paid. Do you know if they're different on different SEATs? it's a 1.2 16v(so he reckons - never heard of that engine) seems odd this would have the same rack as a corrado, but all the ibiza sub-frames certainly look like the C one. cheers, David.

great cheers, I'll be on the lookout for a lowish mileage ibiza etc. rack then, looks like a UJ should be fairly easy to come by (think there's actually one on e-bay at the mo), would be great to bring the steering feel back up to scratch. David.

Hey, don't forget the head-rests at the same height and tilt, that looks well untidy if one's up way higher than the other, same goes for sun-visors, symmetry is so important, thank god they put the corrado aerial in the middle not stuck on one of the rear quarters... :cuckoo: :lol:

Geo, can I get this straight, a Cordoba/Ibiza rack (any particular model/engine, how about polos?) will fit a 16v Corrado with an early (36 spline) rack from the factory. You then need a later Corrado 16v/G60 UJ with 22 splines to mate up to the Seat rack? My rack is very worn in the straight ahead position, haven't tried adjusting the preload screw - even if it has one yet, but at 145,000 miles and 15 years old it's obviously past it's best. I'm just trying to work out the best way forward as the rack and UJ/steering column are the only bits on the car that haven't been replaced yet. cheers, David.

Not really, unless you have it's more advanced ECU mapped to the spec of your engine. A standard ABF with it's system is slightly more torquey mid range than a KE-Jet 6A/9A 16v, it's just a newer and more advanced system. As it's fairly easy to get 170bhp plus from a standard K-jet system I wouldn't bother with an ABF fuel system swap hassle wise. David.

Hi _leon_, What were the characteristics of your steering problems? My 16v has had new bushes all round, ball joints and top mounts, koni & eibach susp. and new drop links and arb inner bushes. I'm getting a progressively worse play problem in the centre position and it's creating quite a bad response when turning into bends or direction, the old bits are steering column and UJ, rack and tie rods, although the tie rods were fine a few months back when the alignment was done, oddly there doesn't seem to be much of a problem in the steering when the car is stationary, it's winding through bends or keeping straight on the M-way that's getting bad. I would really like to get this driving 'as new' again, I guess I'll have to get it up on the ramp and check the play in everything to work out what needs replacing. David.

The outer belt (ps one) drives the pump, the alternator belt is simply deflected by the idler pulley around the water pump, early kr. On the later style and all 9A's it's just a straight drive from outer crank pulley to ps pump, the other belt drives the alternator and water pump. I think that's what you asked? I'm still confused that GSF sold me a pump for a 2L 16v and it fitted my early kr just fine :? So I wouldn't be able to fit the 9A arrangement of pulleys without a new pump (of the later type)? David.

One of the main reasons is to prevent MOT's being writtten out without testing the car, the timing slot for running the test is logged and the vehicle has to pass the emission tests etc in that time slot, very difficult to get a certificate without passing the emissions test, unless you use another car for the testing! David.

Blimey :shock: have you shot blasted and repainted the entire car part by part, looks excellent 8) David.

Going by memory I thought the ps pump on the 9A was driven by the outer crank pulley, but the measurements 41mm and 52mm suggest the 41mm is driven by the inner belt??? Really need to get a pic of the 9A setup to compare. :?

You need to measure the distance from the pulley side face of the pump body to the mounting face for the pulley on the pump, that's where there seem to be two types, I've seen this difference on countless VW's and Seats of the era. From your chassis no./description, you should have the same setup as me, and as in the pictures above, i.e. the ps belt also drives the waterpump, it's the later Kr's and 9A's that just drive the ps pump directly from the crank. From what I remember both the ps pulley and crank pulley for the 9A 'stick out' further than the kr ones. I think this is down to a crank pulley that sticks out further and the shaft length on the pump. I can measure any 'bits' if you like, but not till this evening/tomorrow. David

pump, KR ones have 52mm hub spacing, 9A 41mm - allegedly on ETKA late KR's have same pump pulleys as 9A no. 051 145 255 early KR 027 145 255 crank pulley 9A can't see number, but all other bolts, main pulley etc same as late kr late kr 051 105 255 early kr 026 105 255D all 3 brackets are all the same. KR's and 9A's water pump pulleys go to the same number on late KR's (without idler pulley) and all 9A's David.

try the Club GTI Forum for info mate, quite a few engine builders on there, http://www.clubgti.com/forum/default.asp as for the bits, you should get some from GSF, ECP etc... but you may need to visit a VW dealer for some. David.

The pulleys are all different on the late KR and 9A engines, interestingly when I took my old (and fairly early KR) pump into GSF a few years back, they only listed the 9A pump, but as it was exchange I had my old one with me. apart from a minor difference in the pump feed pipe position they were identical and yet my kr had the early pulley arrangement, simply swapped pulley to new pump and it all fitted fine, the feed pipe was not an issue either. I reckon you just need a kr style pulley for the ps pump, unless both your crank pulley and ps pulley have been swapped at some point. I've got a bunch of pics from my ps setup (kr) if you want them, from when my ps pump was playing up and leaking.- a few added below, this is an early KR setup with a 2.016v pump. I also discovered that several cars, golf 3's, some passats and Seat's have the same pump as the 16v C's do. edit: re-read your post, wierd, possibly you have a pump with a longer shaft and/or spacer, I know some other VW's have this from looking at various cars in the scrappy, same pump but slightly longer shaft. BTW, pug 306's have the same pump too! David.

16v's and G60's can run a bit of negative camber quite happily, makes cornering much better and I've never had any tyre wear problems (-0.5). A tiny amount of toe-in is OK as the geometry tends to pull out under acceleration.

You'd be surprised how accurate a good eye can be for camber settings, can't see how you could do tow in/out or alignment though :?

OK, so I watched Topgear on the web at lunchtime so my eyes are a bit sore but it's all a bit blurry, try fixing the focus on the camera at something less reflective at the same distance first.

yeah, only thing is the O2A gearbox is a bit different, it's amazing how quickly the timing mark on the flywheel can zip past even with a tiny amount of movement turning on the crank pulley. look in the pic attached, almost directly under the white blob of paint on the gearbox casing is a small straight mark in the flywheel, that's the timing mark, there is also a dot a little further to the right on the flywheel(but not in view) which is the 6 deg mark. You can clearly see the arrow on the cambelt cover and the mark in the crank pulley in my pic too, but the cam pulley mark is a little faint, it's right at the bottom in the pic. As I've done, it really helps to put a bit of white paint or Tippex on the marks if you can get at them! David.

Not strictly true, I did mine with the beam off the car and with a long nut and bolt to act as a puller. A couple of big heavy washers and a couple of bits of metal to pack out the washer to the shape of the inner bush face. Took me about four hours, but then I really took my time and it was carefully cutting out the old bushes that took most of it. I was careful to get the positionning of the new bushes spot on and I had to pull the new ones in a bit further after the first time I offered the beam back up to the car, but the whole job was much easier than I thought it would be. I would say the use of a two post garage lift helped me no-end though. I'm sure the only practical way to do it on the car is with the proper puller tool though. David.

After 130,000 miles it was just the front one that was shot on mine, that one takes the bulk of the strain, replaced my gearbox one but that was fine, didn't really need changing. the rear one just has the engine weight sitting on it doesn't really take any strain, Nothing wrong with it at all when I had the engine out of the car. David.

That’s exactly what I was thinking 8) ill check all the marks tomorrow. If the valve timing is out then is it just a case of loosening the tensioner and moving the cam pulley round till it all lines up ? what is it with garages and 16v's???, I've had so many friends get timing belts done and the garage set the timing a tooth or two out (you'll get exactly the symptoms you describe if that's what's happened). The dizzy shouldn't be touched doing the cam belt and it's the flywheel that has a 6 deg before TDC mark on it as well as the timing mark that should match the dizzy mark and cam belt pulley marks. What can happen is when the old timing belt is removed the cams move slightly when the tension is released, that can make it easy to put the new belt on incorrectly if you don't properly check the marks, you also really need to wind it over by hand a couple of times to check everything's timed up properly and the belt can go too tight even if they seemed OK when first tensionned, again it depends if the cams are being pushed round a bit by the valve springs. David.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4700982.stm

1cm wider?

It's to do with the wide track but not exactly sure why.... surely it's got something to do with getting that power and torque down, if the 16v and G60 were 140 and 160bhp ish and the VR6 is 190 it makes sense to put slightly more rubber in contact with the tarmac? David.

why not just leave it shut??? or you could buy an old corrado shell without a sunroof?