Loose steering

rubjonny said

May help to take one or both of the track rods off but tbh you'll probably have plenty of room

LOLOLOLOL………

Take off the inner tie-rods off the rack prior to removing it from the car.

I have replaced a PS rack on my Cabriolet, if I know the bs that was going to happen prior I would of take it out when I changed the clutch on my ride.

Things that you have to remove.
Shifter linkage.
Down pipe
Inner -tierod ends and remove the outers from the spindles.
Gear box clamp off the steering shaft (lower).
Remove the Ground wire off the gear box that goes over to the steering rack mount (this is the main Horn ground for the buttons on the wheel, and don't forget that you have to reattach it.).

Why, because when the car is up in the air about 24-36 inches, and you are working flat on your back upside down and road debris is raining down on your face ears hair and such……wear goggles…….

Removing the inners gives you more swing room to lower the rack straight down from the car, and not have to play a game of left-right swing and drop…..I know…..
because I failed to remove the inners an had a time to get it out…with a move to the left, move to the right move the rack to shorten one side while you have it all the way over to the other, then vice-versa….

Ah ok, I've not actually done rack in car but i managed both rods easily enough

I found this out because both the new rack boots i bought from ebay had rotted off the car within a year, and the car hadn't even left my driveway in this time. lesson learnt, never buy unbranded things ever again

rubjonny said

steering rack is actually pretty easy in a mk1, you have lots of access unlike a mk2 where its mounted much lower and exhaust goes over the top of it.

while everything else is off its just 4 nuts on the bulkhead and a bolt thru the universal joint you have to remove then you can slide it out the passenger side

may help to take one or both of the track rods off but tbh you'll probably have plenty of room

Hey man do you have a guide on how to do this and is it the same on all mk1? I have a 1.4i 2006 model.

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Is yours a Cabby? If you're still stuck with the problem it might be worth considering the following:

I had something similar happen to my car. I took it to get a wheel alignment and when I got it back it was still pulling to the left. I took it back to the mechanic and they were really confused - they said they'd done it perfectly.

Turns out that there was a weld seam coming apart in the 'chassis'  - the 'arm' where that the wishbone attaches to was separating from the body near the bottom of the fire wall (last owner had never replaced any suspension components so the ball joints were so worn out they were hammering the suspension, combined with this being a weaker point on the Cabby versions) When the mechanic had the car up in the air everything was fine, but when it was lowered the whole car would twist and upset the steering. This was particularly noticeable under breaking and acceleration.

Lucky for me the crack hadn't corroded yet and I was able to take the car to a smash repair place who welded in a metal plate to reinforce the seam. I used a lower strut brace to pull everything back into alignment.

Not saying this is your problem and don't want to worry you but it might be worth having a peak under the car seeing as your mechanic says there's nothing wrong with your set up - just throwing this out there as another possibility if you don't find a solution.

Here's my original post on the problem https://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=technical%2Fbodywork-fittings-and_2%2Fcrack-in-chassis-game

meltingdog said

…Not saying this is your problem and don't want to worry you but…

I'd much rather have bad news than live in the dark. I'll ask Mark if he would have noticed that. I don't have my trolly jack with me at the moment.

I have some new wishbones and top mounts to put in, and I need to order a new steering rack (which did you go for btw?). I've just checked and the rear shocks are B4s and look okay, so I only need to replace 2.

Glad you managed to save yours  

the higher spec cab and rocco had a K bar under the car to tie the wishbone and roll bar fixings all together, these are the best way forward if you can find an ortiginal one or an aftermarket coppy. though the standard straight bar is still a great upgrade for any mk1 chassis

This???

thats the very thing, so you're all good

Sweeet.

Okay, next question (one of these days I'm gonna manage to stump you and Briano)…

Can I have different shocks on the front vs rear? I'm replacing the fronts and was thinking that B8s might be more suited to my Eibach lowering springs. Would it be okay to have B8 at the front and B4 at the back with Eibach Pro Kit springs all round?

id prefer to have a full matched set, but no technical or safety reason why not so long as they're reasonably similar.

people go round wadging on missmatched parts either side and dont immediately flip upside down into a ditch after all

worst case if you dont like the way it drives can do the rears after

rubjonny said

people go round wadging on missmatched parts either side and dont immediately flip upside down into a ditch after all

Lol, that's me at the moment. Three B4s and one original, one aftermarket wishbone that doesn't fit, and a dodgy steering rack.

Maybe I should get the full B12 kit and sell the springs (as I have them already).

Have you tried B8 vs B4?

no ive not tried them myself, i hear its all good stuff though.

on my cabby I used boge oil shocks all round, standard gli springs and it handled like it was on rails, loved every minute of driving it.

my mk2 I've got  on sachs advantage twin gas shocks and run boge turbo springs, then changed to a set of eibachs and hit handle great (i thought the boges had sagged, but no, just heavy abf engine and squished top mounts dragging the nose down )