Well, they say every day is a school day, and today was most definitely that. So long story short, I purchased a new manual steering rack from VW Heritage early this year, and proceeded to build my newly refreshed subframe with new everything to fit to my Mk2. Upon seeing a thread on Facebook last night, a fellow Mk2 owner had bought the same rack as mine, but upon fitting noticed that the splines on the new rack had 40, where as the UJ and his original steering rack has 16 ! So this morning, I went to check mine in the unit, and it looks like I have the same problem ! Splines are totally different… This is the first time I’ve ever heard of there being two different UJ splines used on the Mk2. I thought they were all the same ? So my question is, when did they change the spline sizes ? Or is this a GTI / Driver / Lower spec difference ? My Mk2 is a late 1992 J Reg. Would be intrigued to hear any info on this. Thanks. Rich.
The steering rack on my MK2 is the same as the top one, with more splines. I do have to say, the car was modified when I bought it, so I can't tell 100% if it's original or not, but there is no identification of a change.
I had the same problem, going from Power Steering to Manual rack. I think all the manual racks are the same. You need a UJ to match your Manual rack and also the UJ boot.
When i fitted PAS to my mk2, old manual rack was 16 splines, but the mk3 power rack had more, maybe 40. I just got a mk3 ujoint complete, and it got on the column no problem. I think all mk3 have more splines, same number as mk2 PAS rack i think. Strange that a manual rack has more splines like a PAS rack, or it is a mk3 rack. Believe i got them backwards, hehe. Later ones have less splines! Sorry for confusing them, i did the job some years ago, first retrofit i did to my jetta when i got it. More info here, with pics.
Just had a look at heritage and they list two different for LHD, one for 84 to 90 which is 40 spline and one for 90 to 92 which is 18(?) spline. They only list one RHD and don’t specify the splines. Just checked a MK3 (from a 97 car) PAS rack we have and it is 18 spline. It would seem to make sense that as your car is a 92 model you need the 18 spline version. As above you will need to source an early UJ. I bet MK2 Spares have loads.
Hello mate. I’m not actually. As the Mk2 is having a full refresh, I thought I’d change the steering rack too. But I never knew about the spline differences ! The one i purchased was the only RHD one they listed, but as it didn’t mention the different splines, I didn’t think anything of it.
This is what got me stumped, as I’ve changed a few in the past and never had any problems. Seem strange that the only RHD rack that Heritage supply doesn’t state the spline issue. I think I’ll have to get in touch with them and return it, as I don’t really want to change the UJ.
A couple of google searches on the weekend suggested the same thing too. It’s a strange one for sure which I had no idea about
It was just a replacement manual rack for my old manual one, as I’m doing a refresh on my Mk2. So didn’t realise there would be an issue with these spline differences.
That’s so annoying Luckily, the nice guys at Heritage have offered to refund me for my troubles which is a god send, as I purchased this quite a while back now. So the next best thing I can do is have my current rack refurbished. Any recommendations anyone ?
We have changed our rack today. We have gone from 91 manual to 97 mk3 PAS. Apart from the fact that the mk2 UJ is much longer than the MK3 for obvious reasons, even though the rack splines were both course the mk2 would not fit the mk3. I think there is a one spline difference as alluded to above.
Why not just buy the UJ to match the rack?. Mine was only £40 iirc for a good condition 2nd hand one.
The late MK2 UJ is pretty rare I think, however the mk3 manual UK will probably work? People use the mk3 Pas Uj when putting later racks in the MK2. Sometimes one of the bolts can hit the pedal box but a little filing sorts it apparently. Mostly you're ok but ymmv
