Impending problems with parts No Longer Available from VAG

[Les Harris]

I have just got my Syncro running again after being off the road for three months. Most of this time was spent trying to locate parts that are NLA (No Longer Available) from VAG.

I needed a new 5.43 crownwheel and pnion, now NLA from VAG. A search of the whole world yielded one set in Singapore and two sets in South Africa. I also needed a needle bearing, also NLA, and was fortunate that Aidan Talbot had one.

The writing is now on the wall. We are at the time when parts progressively move into the dreaded NLA category. Whilst it is possible to find substitutes for many parts, this doesn't apply to crownwheel/pinions and gearboxes. A much treasured Syncro can become a very expensive garden ornament overnight.

I have contacted VAG to enquire about a division that they had set up to address this problem. They replied and referred me to this new division, Volkswagen-Audi Classic Parts Centre. I have emailed them but haven't heard from them yet.

The time is fast approaching when we will probably have to set up our own resource data base for all of the world. I am so far unconvinced that VAG or any specialist division will be of much material help to someone on the other side of the planet who was off the road for three months while he scoured the world for the parts needed to get back on the road.

Les Harris
Syncro_T3_Australia

[Les Harris]

I have just picked up on a post from Aidan several weeks ago, in which he warns of diminishing supplies of gearbox parts.

I will add that crownwheel/pinion sets and gear sets can be had from Albins. (For anyone not familiar with Albins, they make a large range of VW and Porsche gear sets for off-road racing.)

I mentioned the 5.43 C&P, which was fitted to all Australian delivery Syncros. Albins already make a range of gearsets that fit the Syncro box but haven't so far been called on for the 5.43 C&P. (All US delivery Syncros came with 4.86, same as the 2WD.) They can make them but there is a very long lead time before thay can be slotted into their production schedule.

Les Harris
Syncro_T3_Australia

[Boltze]

Hi Les,

I'll talk to Classic Parts about this problem. I'm in contact with them weekly.

[Les Harris]

Christoph,

Glad to know that they are talking to someone because they certainly aren't talking to me. But then, I am only a serial owner of Valkswagen vehicles over then last fifty years. However, having had much contact with the corporate world - from the inside - I am aware of how far corporate thinking can divert from reality.......

Les

[toomanytoys]

Syncro crown wheel and pinions are not the same as 2wd.. the pinion shaft is different..
Aidan has a company in the Uk that will make the crown wheel and pinion sets in any ratio if needed, but the cost is a lot more than VW were charging..

Its a sad fact, but lots of more common parts are going "NLA" which means its going to be hard in the coming 2 or 3 years..

Because the demand is low and people are not willing to pay the higher prices because of that, very few parts will be "remade"..

Its funny how you can buy just about every part for a Jaguar XK120 from the 1950's when there aint that many around, yet a widely available working vehicle from the 80's has major problems...

[Les Harris]

Sorry, didn't make it clear that I was talking ratios, not hardware.

Albins in Australia will make any Volkswagen (or Porsche) C&P. They quoted me 74% of the Volkswagen price in Australia, but VW Australia have long been notorious for charging incomprehensible prices for all spares. The down side is that while we can buy direct from Albins, the rest of their production goes through an American agent to supply the rest of the world.

[HarryMann]

Hehe! Land Rover owners laugh like hyenas when I tell them how much a single bolt for a VW can cost - Like £13 each for the JX turbo/manifold bolts, that's £52 (+Vear And Tear) if they all break, and if they haven't been out since new, one or more will...

Gearboxes...

WHAT??? How much??? I can get a whole Landie box for £150, what IS this thing you've got?

etc. etc.

What is the difference? And who is it in the middle marking up these parts?

the EE frellin C

I thought classic Mini Cooper 'S' parts were expensive... until i bought a VW

Now, having paid these prices for years to keep the thing going, VW/Steyrs are hanging us out to dry by failing to support us....

VW UK barely acknowledge that T3s exist !

Christoph, make that phone call please (and raise your voice if need be)

[Syncro G]

Hehe! Land Rover owners laugh like hyenas when I tell them how much a single bolt for a VW can cost - Like £13 each for the JX turbo/manifold bolts, that's £52 (+Vear And Tear) if they all break, and if they haven't been out since new, one or more will...

Untill you venture outside the world of landys its hard to realise how good they have it. Mines a 1956 model and I just pick up the phone and quote the part numbers when I want bits, of fit something slightly newer as it often fits. Yet to find something thats a real problem. Its not all rosey though, ask any smug owner about Britpart (first 2 letters usally pronounced "sh") Cheep chinease tat lerks inside some of their boxes, repackaged OEM stuff in others means buying parts is like russian roulet. Pre warped brake drums anyone, I've had 4. As with VW's, old Landys were built well from good stuff (modern ones might be a different story) and last well but when those bits break the replacement isn't going to be quite the same, infact it may only last hours (britpart wheel cylinders).

Gearboxes...
WHAT??? How much??? I can get a whole Landie box for £150, what IS this thing you've got?

At that price I'd think about buying one! Maybe I wouldn't though. Series boxes are cheepest and tend to be upward of £300 exchange reconned. I bought one a couple of years ago but 13k later I was rebuilding the transferbox - no way that ware was only 13k's worth though the parts needed weren't expencive. One of those 'boxes takes as much labour to fix as anything else so its understandable at that price some corners must have been cut. They sell them for a flat fee, some they make losses on if it really broke, others only need the odd bearing so are profets. The proper full reconed boxes in landys tend to be £500-1000 depending on model so isn't really that far off VW boxes before parts demanded rareness factor. Despite LR banging on about series 1's and the 60th anaversery this year they won't regognise mine in the dealer and their new classic parts scheme doesn't cover them eather (thats for 80's models!). If they did the prices would be as silly as VW's. Baiscly the only difference between VW's and landys is threres more cheep tat redily avalable, and theres the destinct advantage the more basic parts offer easyer alternatives. Early engine designs that didn't have later evolutions have parts problems, just like the WBX will/does, but just like other classics there are small specalists that have this in hand for a price.

Whilst it is possible to find substitutes for many parts, this doesn't apply to crownwheel/pinions and gearboxes. A much treasured Syncro can become a very expensive garden ornament overnight.

I like to think of mine as becoming a fairly useful extra shed so as a sort of functioning garden ornament, my mum tolarates this better. Syncros are better at this as they are easyer to drive into the garden and have more storage space underneath. I think a rear wheel carryer could be used as a hose real and you can train plants up the truck mirrors. Still I would prefer a working gearbox and drive it to Crete for the summer, maybe next year instead?

[HarryMann]

Hehe, like the bit about using it as a garden shed, as an annual chore is pruning the neighbours hop tendrils off of mine and removing yards of the stuff from the rear vents... triffids don't come close to hop plants!

As I was in a bit of a wind-up mode, nuff said, except you didn't counter the bit about the £13 turbo bolts... and bet you can't

[syncrosimon]

Renault Kangoo Trekka rear handbrake cable return spring, lost or fell off, Renault dont do little bits seperate, had to buy a complete rear disc caliper. Ahhhhhhhh 124 quid.

[Syncro G]

As I was in a bit of a wind-up mode, nuff said, except you didn't counter the bit about the £13 turbo bolts... and bet you can't

Well perhaps the LR equivilent to that is the Mainshaft locktab for series landys with fariey overdrives. Its just a belt bit of thin metal but I think it costs something stupid aproching a tenner, but you can buy a normal one for about a quid and do a small bit of fileing for the perfect fit.

Once bought a complete handbrake ajuster assembly (in 1950's greased packageing) for £15 because the one part I wanted from it cost £17 on its own (it has 2 of them in it). And then theres the people on ebay who pay £40 for an exhaust clamp, for about £35 you can buy a complete exhaust system WITH all fittings!

Luckally I can't top £13 for a bolt off the top of my head, but bolts are getting more expencive nowerdays as alot are Witworth which are getting harder to source. Aparently the big parts surpliers do alot of buisness selling bolts abrord as its almost impossable outside the UK to get them at all. Other option is to bodge it with metric but then you'll need to carry 3 sets of spanners (I've got a 70's engine thats AF, the gearbox was designed in the 1940s and never got radicly updated so its Witworth, as are most other components and and then theres the metric stuff thats crept in). That I must say is a big plus to working on the VW, that and things tend to be less rusted up though they make up for it by makeing things inaccesabe - sure a modern landy is just as bad though, peugeots and fiats are worse!

[sheffieldcoljules]

I have had loads of Toyota Celicas, and one design had a "pooh" engine...always failed the rubber seal front pulley one. Toyota wanted 14 quid for it, but i went to city seals n bearings in sheffield and less than a quid...and its the same as sold to Toyota!

[HarryMann]

for about £35 you can buy a complete exhaust system WITH all fittings!

Aha, here we go again, a 1/10th or 1/12th of a Syncro one?


Anyway, sorry Les, back to your original subject...

Parts NLA crisis...

[Pat Dolan]

I just got off of the phone with Glenn Cook, the resident syncro (and other VW) gearbox specialist in Burnaby BC. He is doing a rebuild on our Westy Syncro, with Weddle top gears and Peloquin TBD diff (for 2.5 tdi swap). Our mainshaft had been damaged due to 3-4 detent failure getting under 3rd needle brg, and we needed a new one. He had only ONE new one left, and fortunately a good used spare. He has no idea where the next one will come from.

I take great exception to this situation, since one can go to the Porsche store and get all kinds of 356 parts, or to D-B and buy almost anything postwar, and even a bunch of prewar OEM parts. What distresses me is how VW top management has become so inept as to miss the importance of heritage vehicles in the success of their company. Makes you think twice when throwing another $20 grand or so into a vehicle that will probably be unserviceable if it has a major failure in a couple of years.

[HarryMann]

What distresses me is how VW top management has become so inept as to miss the importance of heritage vehicles in the success of their company.

Couldn't agree more Pat.
As I mentioned above VW UK don't even seem to know what they are, let alone want to provide any genuine support, but then today, suits are suits and breadheads are breadheads... don't expect anyone working at VW MK to be an enthusiast, despite the Chairman's crap on their website about '.. being one big all-incluive VW family' That's the cynicism that makes me puke, much worse than just admitting they hate the 'bus' image... and can't get away from it quickly enough...