Brake Upgrade and Power Steering

[derek]

Hi fellow Sciroccoists,
I have just finished a brake and steering upgrade on my 1989 Scirocco that members might be interested in.
The linkage from the pedal to servo reduces the brake effort and being rather partial to good brakes I decided to try an upgrade, this consists of a dual diaphragm servo and master cylinder from a Audi A6 3.2 litre. The mounting holes line up with the original bracket and the only modifications are to the clevis which needs to be 12mm as opposed to the original 10mm, I cut off the 10mm thread and welded on a 12mm nut, the other mod is to fit 12mm to 10mm convertors to the hydraulic outlets [there are only two as normally they feed an ABS unit] lastly you will need a couple of 150mm lengths of pipe with 10mm nuts either end and two 10mm tee pieces to connect to the original brakes lines [be sure to maintain the correct diagonal split].
The steering was very stiff particularly at parking speeds so having already converted my old LT camper van I decided to try the same on the Scirocco.
This consists of an Opel Corsa C electric power unit which has a tilt adjustment, I should have taken pictures, but if you remove the original column and bracket including the bottom universal linkage and work back from there connecting the spline on the electric unit to the top universal on the linkage.
With a bit of judicious nipping and clipping on the bracket with a small grinder the electric unit can be made to fit, the top splined shaft of the electric unit fits inside the top of the original column so no messing with the steering lock and wheel spline. The whole unit then fits into the space under the dash as if it were made for it [there is a God in heaven] there is a small box of tricks available on Ebay from Bruno_Steering in Portugal which will give a variable amount of power to the whole setup if you want more feedback at speed, though to be honest there is quite good feedback anyway, [this also allows my wife to happily drive].
The camper van has gone from a major workout on three point turns to one finger on the wheel, you must be able to steer the Opel by thought alone!
These two modifications have made the car very sweet to drive particularly the brakes having a much better bite [which can only be good].
Hoping this will be of some use and not annoy the purists too much.
By the way I would appreciate if anyone has a suggestion for a higher ratio gearbox to improve consumption and reduce noise levels at speed, I could use a sixth and seventh gear, I believe the Diesel Vento box would make an improvement.
All the best Derek.

[james butler]

good to hear you have made your brakes better and great that you too the time to do a write up much appreciated.

regarding the higher ratio box it is actually not that difficult to swap your 5th gear with one from a diesel, this way you can keep the origenal box and good take off 1st to 3rd but have the economy of a longer 5th.
you wont need to strip the entire gearbox to do it either follow the link below
http://www.brokevw.com/5thswap.html

[mark1gls]

Or find a 4T gearbox out of a Mk2 Golf or some Mk2 Scirocco as that was a 4+E gearbox.