Club 80-90 Forums

Hi there, new to 80-90. Have spent the last week being sent to coventry by my wife, as I recently part exchanged her beautiful mint golf cabriolet for my dream vehicle, a white single cab pick up, Syncro!
Spent the week cleaning and waxing it lovingly, then got this month's Camper and Commercial only to find a great article on the Syncro's with this website on it.
Spoken to a lovely lady today from Syncrospares, who was most helpful, and then we decided to look at the chat forum, then low and behold....Bad news?!!!
We found a few people taliking about a pick up in the autotrader which had problems with the diff locks, sounded too familiar, sold by a trader with no V5, sounded even more familiar!
We got ours from a trader, seemed very genuine, in Matfield, Kent. I went down on my own, and quite honestly didnt know what to look for with the 4 x 4 so took his word it was fine!
Hoping someone will come back to me and tell me this wasnt the same vehicle, and the autotrader one was somewhere else..PLEASE!
If it is that one, can anyone help with the diff lock problem, is it a bad one to fix??
Hope to hear from you all soon. John

ermmm, ehem, no "h" in syncro, sorry, but if i dont tell you someone else will, and i'd hate for you to get the wrong impression of us......

welcome!

Welcome in John, lots of folks here to help you with your syncro, hopefully you'll get it sorted soon and get to one of our syncro meets where you can see what these great vehicles can do.

John, moved this to the Syncro forum section, where it will get the desired attention...

Welcome! Difflocks shouldn't be a problem. there are much worse things to find wrong with it... perhaps if you put a picture up someone wll recognise it..?

Gotta be the same vehicle, I'm afraid. TerryVanMan went and had a look at this one.

Sorry, but I would hope you can get it all sorted out sharpish!

Sorry, thats what happens when you get your wife to type and you dictate! I know how to spell syncro, honest! Its just understanding how the buggers work that gets me!
We have a type 25 Reimo camper and other vw's, its more of an illness now than just a passion!
Was hoping this may have been a different vehicle than the one seen before in the autotrader, but obviously not, wont hear the last of it now from the missus!
Unfortunatly my heart always rules my head, if I see a vw I want, I'm willing to sell my heart to the devil to get it..whoops, too late, done that.
Thanks for the advice anyway, I will go and sulk now.
John and Kate

Cheer up J& K, look on it as a challenge! a lot of them are!

Thanks Cate, we know the Isle of Wight well, John worked over there at the Pontins 'Little Canada' many many years ago! We got married there 5 years ago, so its our favourite place. Hope to get a pic of our syncro up soon, we may have been done, but love it anyway.Well, Kate will when she gets it sprayed in a colour she wants so it dosn't look like a builders van! All our kids call it 'Pikey Pick up ' at the moment! J & K

Ha! you've been got by the syncro-bug, you'll love it even when you hate it, when its lets you down, when the prop costs 300, when the gear box breaks, the engine goes phhhhoooooof, it makes you cry, you lose the skin off your knuckles trying to get mud encrusted bolts undone, but ohhh the grin factor when you get off-road in the muddy glory is just fantastic!

What colour then?.......first domestic over the syncro looms over the horizon!

If you visit the Island again do call in.

Cate,as he exchanged it for my pride and joy, my golf !, I did wind him up and told him he could only keep it if he had it sprayed pink. Lucky for him I was joking. I do quite like a gold colour I have seen one on Ebay, looks very smart.
Dosn't look like we will be able to do much off roading til its all sorted out, so at least it can look good!
J&K

Don't make it look toooo good, you'll not want to properly off road for fear of scratching the paint!

There are some good metallic vw golds to use. Scoobydrews van is a smashing bright clean gold.

That sounds cool, would like to see a pic of that!
We have a Type 25 Reimo camper and a type 4 which we have just got a rock and roll bed in, cos we've got loads of kids, so with work to do on both of them, dont know when we'll have time to spray the pick up. Probably best to get it working, take it for some off roading while it still looks like it does, then think about a respray.
Its 4 x 4 may be up the creak, but it is very clean, not rusty at all. Told john, it was a silly buy cos we cant get me and the kids in...his answer was, thats ok, he can just take the kids out! Nice!
Still, his new baby makes him happy, I am happy with our type 25 'Wizzy'. No more VW's now, enough is enough....until the next one.
J&K

If you're not sure about the drivetrain the best thing you can do is to drop the centre prop out until you can test it or meet up with someone knowledgeable who can give you a clear assessment of the vehicle and the condition of the drivetrain.

Are the tyres all evenly worn? Are there any clonking noises when you wind on steering lock? If you put it on grass and pull out the diff-lock knobs do the lights come on?

Hi and welcome...

I spot you are only down in Reigate, only down the road from me in Sutton. Quite happy to meet up and have a nose around at your difflocks and talk you through the 4x4ing etc. There are some lovely greenlanes round near you