VW MK2 DIY
Your DIY for the 85-92 VW
These DIY's will be made with my 91 GLi and as I do things on it. These should help you maintain and modify your mk2. Please read the diy fully before attempting it. Any questions please see the contact page.
ND after link means I have not done the diy yet.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
PLEASE BEAR WITH ME AS I UPDATE
Mk3 rear subframe and power steering swap
First things first if you want to use the mk3 control arms you will need the mk3 inner tie rods AND mk3 axles due to the extra width of the mk3 stuff.
heres two pics of the differences. longer is mk3. and obviously shorter is mk2.
i would reccomend pulling the motor and transmission to make it easier to do this swap. if your only swapping the subframe you 'can' do it without pulling the motor and transmission. you will need to supoort the motor. if you swapping power steering with the subframe it is much easier with the engine and transmission out. in all actuality its easier to pull the motor and transmission then pull the subframe and power steering and attach everything out of the car and put it all in as a unit.
you need to properly support the front of your vehicle and remove the front wheels. aslo support the axles up and away from the subframe and support the subframe
remove the lower steering shaft bolt and pop the steering shaft off of the rack as much as possible.(it probably wont come off all of the way but get it as far as possible)
disconnect the outter tie rods and ball joint from the steering knuckles.
remove the front control arm bolt, the rear control arm bolt and sway bar nut and remove the control arms. pull the front bushing out and pull towards the front of the car and wiggle the rear one out.
pull the power steering hoses out of their holder near the firewall and pull the resivoir out of its bracket.
now the last bolts. right above where the cocntrol arms were there will be one more bolt on each side. remove that very carefully and lower the subframe down and out. On the mk3 there is another bolt further back from the rear control arm bolt. the one right behind the rear control arm bolt is for the sway bar and does not need to be removed.
now once you have the subframe out set them next to each other.
here is what you should have.
MK2
MK3
now to swap parts from your mk2 subframe and power steering to the mk3.
inner tie rods, feed line between resivour and pump and power steering brackets. if you have a 16v motor you can use the mk3 power steering pump pulley but will need a slightly bigger belt. picture of the belt numbers are at the bottom of the page. if you have a 8v or diesel youll have to get creative with the pulley. there is a diy on vortex on what you need to do to line the pullys up properly on 8v/diesel.
now remove the mk2 rear engine mount from your motor and reinstall the mk3 rear motor mount and attach the rear subframe to the motor and trans mounts. you dont need to attach the front subframe like i did. its actually easier to do once the motors in the car and the rear subframe is bolted up.
anyways this is what you should have before you put it in.(you should attach the exhaust manifold before the motor goes in. luckily i realized that before i put the motor in)
now youll need the lower steering shaft from the mk3. before putting the motor/trans/subframe assembly in replace the lower steering shaft in the car with the mk3 one.
here is a pic of the two steering shafts.Left is mk3. right is mk2. the end that attaches to the rack is different between them. one is course splines and the other is fine. if you cant get the shaft on the rack while your putting it in like i did you can do what i did if you have the same shaft that i do.
after the shafts in you can begin putting the motor assembly back in. it all goes in the same way it came out. the rear most hole on the mk3 subframe is not used. you will need to move the power steering hoses into the holder near the firewall and move the resivour mount. i will post better pics of the whole assembly installed asap. reinstall the front subframe and bumper and attach the motor mount. reconnect and reinstall everything and double and tripple check everything.
all i did with the resivour mount was unbolt it and move it forward since where it was interferred with the ps lines. i am going to eventually try and figure out a way to retrofit the mk3 battery tray so i can properly mount the ps resivour.
if you had issues getting the lower steering shaft onto the rack like i did there is a trick to get it to work. that is if you have the same shaft that i have. you will need to remove the steering shaft or you can try and do the following with it still in the car.
remove both nuts and pull the bolts out. slide the collar towards the steering wheel end. reinstall both ends and turn the steering wheel while trying to slide the collar onto the lower part of the shaft. once it slides on you will need to line up the holes and slide the bolts through and reattach the nuts.
reattach your exhaust and readjust your shifter linkage. start her up and check for leaks and take her for a drive. you may want to get the front realigned.
I did install hockey pucks in the front and rear motor mounts when the subframe was in my old mk3. ran them for atleast a year of hard daily driving with no issues. i wasnt able to get the rear apart to get any pics but the front pucks are in place of the front mount in the car now. both mounts used 3 pucks on top and one puck on bottom. had vibration issues so i used the stock lower mount(its the size of a hockey puck) in the place of one puck in the rear mount and most of the vibration went away. also ended up shimming the trans mount with washers to level out the motor since the pucks lifted the motor about a half inch. here is two pics of the front mount in the car now. i need to get a grade 8 or stronger bolt before i start the car since the grade 5 i have in there now(thats all the store had at the time that was long enough for what i needed) would probably break real easy especially since i had to put a 40-45 degree bend in it. 7" 3/8" bolt and nut with a mk3 lower mount washer. you can see how much the pucks flex on the lower one along with the washer. i think i tightened it a little to tight. the bolt i have in there is an 8" and as you can see by the extra length its an inch to long. the frount motor mount is actually 3.5 pucks tall(from subframe to bracket) so i decided to put four on top on the front mount only.
UPDATE: so most hardware stores will only have up to 6" grade 8, 3/8" bolts. its possible to use that but youll need to remove the lower puck and washer. the upper pucks stay. if you can find longer youll want 7" at minimum but you can get away with a 8" but it will be long like the grade 5 in the pics. youll also want a small washer like the one on the top of the mount in the first pic if your using the 7" bolt. If your using the 8" bolt you wont need the smaller washer on the bottom.
anyways on to the pics.
now heres what i had to do to mount the mk3 reservoir. if you look at the next two pics youll see where i was able to mount it. the hoses are a little long and needed to be trimmed and attached. im using zip ties for now to hold it to the bracket. ill be working on a better mount later on. i will need to go get a pic of it mounted with the radiator in. still putting the car together so please bear with me on that one.
i got this at autozone. this will be tight getting it on but a size bigger was to big and a size smaller would not go on.
