Club 80-90 Forums

Can't see anything on the Wiki about this...

My MOT man says the steering rack on my 1987 Syncro is showing signs of wear and will probably need replacing at or before the next MOT. I've seen a new rack advertised for £75 but it says "not Syncro" so I presume the Syncro item is different? Has anyone any experience of replacing the rack in a Syncro?

Andy W

They are all the same, 2WD and Syncro.
4 different racks, 2WD LHD, 2WD RHD, 4WD LHD, 4WD RHD.

So what's the difference then? Jes*b and I had this conversation a while back about the retro-fit PAS for his 16 and ETKA shows a different part number for those. https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... r+steering" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The manual rack on my '86 syncro looks identical to the 2wd one(OK so it's early and not the same as later ones but...)
Is it a case of VW over-engineering things and speccing a different seal for the syncro, so they have a diff. part no?

I have a 2wd pas rack that I was going to put on the syncro with appropriate uprights, but if there's going to be a problem I'll save it for the Microbus.

Now if some kind soul with genuine PAS on a syncro were to put up the odd pic so we can do a comparison with a 2wd and maybe even a 16, we might get a better idea of what's what.

Gen 16" with gen PAS here

Funnily enough it was you I was thinking of Lloyd I'm sure Neil also has a vested interest in inspecting the 14" PAS on Sally's Westy, so get to it chaps!

I reckon the difference is in the steering shaft seal (syncro may have a mud sheild?) and possibly the number of turns lock-to-lock. 16" has 281 part number sequence IIRC?

Simon Baxter wrote:They are all the same, 2WD and Syncro.
4 different racks, 2WD LHD, 2WD RHD, 4WD LHD, 4WD RHD.

Now you've confused me… although to be fair that's easily done. Isn't that a typo - aren't the 4 types:
PAS - LHD, MS - LHD, PAS - RHD, MS - RHD?

I think it's the tie rods and coulumn/knuckle that are different.
Rob.

I have a genuine 14 with pas from new...and a 2wd rack fitted by me on my sika....can't see any differences as yet.


Baxter...please clarify!

Ha ha ha.

That's what happens when I look at the forum when someone rings to 'pick my brains'!
I dont concentrate fully on either task!
What I meant to say while someone was telling me their life story is that there are 4 racks.
PAS LHD, PAS RHD, NON PAS LHD AND NON PAS RHD.
Nothing to do with 2WD and 4WD at all.
My bad.

Simon Baxter wrote:That's what happens when I look at the forum when someone rings to 'pick my brains'!
I dont concentrate fully on either task!
What I meant to say while someone was telling me their life story is that there are 4 racks.
PAS LHD, PAS RHD, NON PAS LHD AND NON PAS RHD.
Nothing to do with 2WD and 4WD at all.
My bad.

Huh...no the feeling...why do folk want to tell all about there interesting lives ect just because your fixing their vans? Had a case of this the other day myself but can't be arsed to go into detail about it now....but basicly I dared to go outside at work and got attacked by 2 customers with 2 different t4s at the same time! One lives in France...one has a syncro (t4)and is called Andy! ...

lhd wrote:I think it's the tie rods and coulumn/knuckle that are different.
Rob.

The steering shaft is certainly different...no doubts there....I hope the tie rods are the same....off to check

Checked...a bit...non the wiser...is syncro pas the same tie rod as keep fit steering...and is 2wd the same as syncro?

max and caddy wrote:

lhd wrote:I think it's the tie rods and coulumn/knuckle that are different.
Rob.

The steering shaft is certainly different...no doubts there....I hope the tie rods are the same....off to check

Checked...a bit...non the wiser...is syncro pas the same tie rod as keep fit steering...and is 2wd the same as syncro?

I wouldn't panick just yet. I thought i heard that but could well be wrong.
Rob.

Pretty sure on a 16" all is the same , the uprights are drilled in a different place tho on the small bit of the casting that sticks out there is about 20mm difference between the holes ( PAS closer in to turning radius) this is why I have a pair of PAS 16" uprights tucked away ready for the factory upgrade to the Doka . I know a good engineer who can have the non PAS uprights when they come off as they will need some remedial work to turn them into a spare set of PAS's as spares.
Whist I was in negotiations to procure these (Tigerbus Martin) I checked with several of the guys on 1G16 and they all said that although different part number the 16" PAS rack was the same as 14/2WD) as I was after a factory upgrade at one point I thought I might be pi££ing in the wind trying to track down a RHD PAS 16" rack.

"about 20mm" isn't accurate enough for me

I suppose I could calculate the exact dimension from the difference in rack strokes and apply that ratio to the effective S.A.L. but it would be nice to have a pair of 14" PAS uprights to check against...