Mk 2 rear stut upgrade

[Patrick]

Last weekend I installed a set of springs from the front of a 1986 chevette in the back of my wife's 92 four door jetta, lifted the back end almost too much, but there's room to trim the coil and still have more hieght and capacity than stock. As it is it's a littel high, but there's still suspension travel both ways. She's been driving it for a week, came home with 8 50 lb bags of horse feed, sits higher than stock(empty) and it's loaded.

This week's project will be MY 92 4 door jetta, got a pair of struts out of a 94 passat (gas) that was on a trailer headed for the crusher. What a nice car!( before he blew the timing belt). Struts appear to be about an inch taller overall, the spring in a LITTLE heavier wire, and there's one more coil. Top mount is different, I'll have to use the jetta mount, and maybe everything except the spring from the jetta. Will pass on the info when I get the job done.

Also aquired the wheels/tires off the passat, aluminum 14" with some road rash and a reasonable set of tires. Using the tires, not the rims if someone is close to me and wants to take a look, the rims will be priced right.  Same offset as the bottlecaps I run on one of the cars in the summer.

[Patrick]

THe 94 passat springs gave me a raise of about 4" at the back bumper, maybe too much? Going to try it for awhile, probably end up trimming the coil by 1/2 a coil, maybe a full coil. The Passat strut body is a no go, the bottom half is a hair longer, but the shock rod is about an inch shorter.

Something to watch for on these older cars, there's aftermarket struts in this thing and they have a coarse thread instead of a fine thread like every other volks I've had anything to do with. Wrecked some threads before I figured out what was going on!

[hillfolk'r]

wow thats wild!! howin the world did you find out chevette springs workin a vw??thats cool!!,,igot the heavy duty cargo psrings for mya2 from parts place,,they arent as good as yours,but definately get rid of the a2 saggy rear,,mine went up maybe an inch,1.5 maybe,,,,slight rake,,,,yours may be good for draggin'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Patrick]

The chevette front springs in my wife's car I found by walking around a wrecking yard with a tape measure. They were already out laying on a shelf, same diameter wind, a lot heavier wire. Also a littel less overall hight in the "free" state (not installed). THe only reason I know they came out of the front of a chevette is the tag we found on the spring. The ONLY thing about these is that they don't have the tight wind one one end of the spring, but it looks like it's not needed.

The passat springs in my car I also spotted in the yard, but didn't buy because they wanted big bucks to take them out. Spotted the other car on the trailer a week later. These are one coil longer than stock mk 2 jetta springs, and are wound from a heavier wire, although not as heavy as the chevette springs. Did see some heavier ones in a "hot" passat of some description in the yard, VR6 car maybe?

Went looking because I did something similar a LONG time ago.
V6 buick and 5 speed in an Astre wagon, back springs came out of the front of a Corvair, front springs came out of a Buick Skyhawk. (Big sway bars, gas shocks, dual exhaust, etc, etc, etc......... Car liked to break spider gears until I rebushed the back suspension.

I wouldn't call this a handling "improvement", although it could be. The extra ride height could make handling worse if carried to extremes.  It will allow more wieght in the back though! Trimming the spring to bring ride height back to stock would be a handling improvement.