Mk2 Syncro

My Jetta's a 1990 syncro (4wd) its a 1.8 carb, a bit scruffy and pretty much standard.

Earlier this year I decided to get a 4wd and came across this quite cheap on ebay. I'd never seen a Jetta syncro before and liked the idea and bought it on the spur of the moment. The first time I saw the car was when I went to collect it, it had T&T so I would be driving it 100 miles home. The drive home wasn't too bad, but I noticed a few niggles: heater not working, noisy wheel bearing, engine running hot, brakes awful, back end sitting high.

After trying to source parts for it I found that these are kinda rare, golf syncro's aren't common but Jettas are rocking horse poo. With that in mind I decided I should give the car a bit of tlc and not just abuse it.

The car had been neglected for a while, so most of the work I have done has just been to get it running 100%. The work so far includes:
1x wheel bearing, £35 for a bearing!
The brakes have been overhauled, Tarox discs & mintex pads fitted so it stops now.
Coolant and oil flushed, all new filters and belts.
New plugs, leads, dizzy cap & rotor arm
I removed the heater bypass valve and fitted new heater control cables, fully working heater now.
New radiator fan switch.
Weber 32/34 carb.
15" le castellets.
New "syncro" rear springs and shocks.


The previous owner had lost the service history but did have a receipt for over £200 for work on the rear suspension. I won't mention the garage but they had fitted the wrong springs and shocks on the back - Syncro shocks/springs are 2-3" shorter than standard ones due to the rear driveshafts. This was why the rear end sat high .... I had the correct springs & shocks imported from Germany, the car now sits level.

Before I post any pics apologies for the quality, but my bro nicked my camera so these are off my phone
I'll borrow a camera and post better ones in a day or so.

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There is some rust showing in a few places so that needs touching up, mainly around the lower section of the car so I am probably going to rubberise it. I think this would look different and be in keeping with the 4wd/off-road look. Currently that will be the lower part of the grey/silver, below the plastic strip.

I am also thinking about changing the head for either a pb or dx one as they are supposed to be an improvement over the standard GU one (bigger inlet valves). If I was going to change the head I would also change the dizzy for a k-jet one (better advance) and put a mild cam in the new head. Next would be a custom exhaust ... this would have to be made to measure, I've been quoted £300 for this.

Chris

looks very nice

Sweet mate is the color how she came factory or has she been two toned at some point in her life i like it its different and thats what its about

Sorry, I've still not taken any decent pics, but heres what I just fitted today ....

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Yay, split fold rear seats. All the fittings were there already, it was a 10 min job to swap them over
I think I'm getting sad in my old age.

I'll try and do some better pics of the car soon ..

PS. As far as I know the two-tone paint was done from new.

looking good, somebody's nicked your rear bulkhead lol

2drYetti wrote:looking good, somebody's nicked your rear bulkhead lol

yeah!! is that a syncro thing or have the folding seats from a golf been put in?

Its a syncro thing ...

Quick snap of my dining room table

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Thats a head from a pb engine I picked up free the other day and will be fitted (hopefully before xmas) along with a k-jet dizzy I've got lying around .... Hopefully this should give me a few more horses.

hows about a jetta country? like a take on the golf one but betterer?

rowlesy wrote:hows about a jetta country? like a take on the golf one but betterer?

That was my original thought when I saw the car with the wrong springs on the back and sitting high. Unfortunately though this is not a good idea, someone over on the syncro forum tried to "country" a standard Golf syncro and had nothing but problems ... shearing bits of suspension etc. and that was using VW's own heightening springs.

The thing is Golf countrys were actually built on a completely different platform all together.

I wish my Jetta had a folding rear seat, it one of the few gripes I have about an otherwise very practical motor.

Always good to see a dining table being used for it's proper purpose.

JaySteed wrote:I wish my Jetta had a folding rear seat, it one of the few gripes I have about an otherwise very practical motor.

Always good to see a dining table being used for it's proper purpose.

i will second that i want to cut my bulkead out,
think with the back seat down you could get 4
hostages in instead of 2

Think stiff boys!!

rear bulkhead is like a big rear strut brace!

...............so cut it out fit golf bench and brace the rear struts!!

I don't believe it adds much in the way of stiffness as the metal used in quite thin and the pressing is designed to support load against it, i.e. parcel shelf and seat back.

If the syncro comes with a folding rear seat, why wouldn't that need the seat back and shelf. I though the only differences were to the boot floor height, trans tunnel and rear suspension.

I don't know what the normal Jetta is like but the "parcel shelf" on the syncro is actually quite a solid metal thing and definitely not moveable ... I wish it was as that would make loads of storage space but I presume its there to add rigidity.

Arse - the cars off the road again ... rear wheel bearings.
I've changed them before on my Scirocco and its quite easy so I started to have a go on the Jetta then gave up. These damn syncro's are starting to p*ss me off. A bit of research has now shown me that I need to dismantle a bit more than I hoped:

It goes something like this

1) Remove the driveshaft.
2) Remove hydraulic brake pipe from the wheel cylinder.
3) Remove brake drum.
4) Remove Handbrake cable.
5) Remove Spring/shocker unit lower mounting bolt.
6) Remove the 2 bolts holding the swing arm/triangle in place, it will now fall out.

There are 2 sizes of bearing that VW used but I won't know which until I take things apart ... Its not too much to do but its rather annoying as I've had the rear suspension off twice already.

I am very busy with work so don't really have time to do this atm, so the cars going to be parked up for a bit and I am beginning to consider selling it

After I bumped into someone (Reaver?) in a hotel car park in Brum I thought I'd do a little update...

I will get better pics up this weekend. I would have done today but I parked in a rather unfortunate place last night and my cars covered in poo

I haven't done much since my last post, just fitted the pb head, refurbed Weber and a K&N. The car runs really well and I'd forgotten how torquey the syncro feels compared to my 'rocco.

Fingers crossed folks MOT on Sat.
I'm not too worried, worst thing I know of is the brakes but thankfully they can't test those properly

Good to here there's progress. More pics when sorted please!

Was good to have met you in Brum this week buddy after i spoke to you i suddenly put 2 & 2 together and recognised the car looking forward to the future updates

Cant believe i've not come accross this thread before!!...

Very rare car and persevere with it mate it WILL be worth it in the end.

Also get some better pics up