Manual steering swap

[smutts]

Parking my GTD with manual steering has me cursing and I am not exactly wimpy. I pity the Missus though, she has been forced to use the older GTD to get to work. She is eight stone (110lbs?) and is not exactly enjoying it much. :wink:

[jtanguay]

i wonder if a european mk3 setup could be transplanted into a mk4...?  the tie rods themselves should be long enough right???  i found parking my '86 jetta was fairly easy even with mech steering.  a little difficult to do one handers, but it was managable.  skinny tires help  :lol:

[gigaz2]

mk2 and mk3 manual steering box is the same. (check on etka, same partnumber)
the rods are longer on the mk3

the problem would be to couple the beetle steering column to the much lower non PS box. (weird angle)

[rallydiesel]

Finally started the swap. As far as the steering u-joint differences- the manual rack has a smaller diameter knurled post and sits lower than the power steering post. One thing I am missing that I wasn't aware of before, the manual tie rods attach to the rack with a lock nut, while the power steering tie rods use loctite. The rack and tie rods I have (both brand new) didn't come with the lock nuts. You will also need to get the boot clamps as they didn't come with the inner tie rod boots.

Also, the power steering rack only has one steering rack bracket. The other side bracket is integrated into the rack itself. And the rubber bushings are different between the manual and power racks.

Part numbers:

Tie rod inner lock nuts: 171419855
Small boot clips: 171419838
Large boot clips N90355001