Steering Rack: New or rebuilt?

[childofthewind]

Hi, I'll get straight to the point. Need a new steering rack. This is something I cannot do myself right now so will need to buy something online. Van Cafe/ RMW has brand new with a kit for around $540 or I can get a rebuilt Maval for a little over $300. Found a local shop to do either, whichever I prefer.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Thank you!
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1987.5 wolfsburg hardtop; 2.1

“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote." - Melville

[hardway]

Rebuilt steering racks are quite a gamble. I have installed several of the new Jopex racks without any issues.

[davideric9]

Not a direct answer, but I have installed the new rack from BusLab (maybe the same one from vanCafe) and it is a joy to drive. I have a few vans and driving the one with the new rack is so much smoother than the other vans.
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1987 Syncro Westfalia, stock (bought 1994)
1986 Syncro Westfalia SVX, 3 knob (bought 2008)
1987 Westfalia (bought 2010)
1988 Wolfsburg GL (bought 2012)

[childofthewind]

Thanks to both of you, exactly what I needed to hear.
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1987.5 wolfsburg hardtop; 2.1

“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote." - Melville

[seventyfo]

The last rebuilt I bought lasted 2 years
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85 Vanagon GL Westy GW 2.2 (Rebuilt by YT)


"I don't know you well enough to care about your comments". Watkins Cravey

[Igeo]

I installed a new one sourced from Van Cafe. Also the urethane bushings. Really nice. Make sure your guy flushes the system.
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1987 Westfalia 2.1 WBX Manual

[childofthewind]

Just ordered the Van Cafe new rack kit. Thanks everyone!
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1987.5 wolfsburg hardtop; 2.1

“As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote." - Melville

[Squidfish]

Burley has complete kits with all German parts for a good price.
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1985.5 - Vanagon Westfalia Weekender Wolfsburg Edition - LH8U - "Penny"
- 2.6i 5-Cylinder 10v (2004)

[khughes]

[khughes]

[Butcher]

Good choice. Maval is not known for quality rebuilds. Even though they may offer a lifetime warranty, it sucks everyone you install has an issue. The last client I installed one in his car totaled it and that resolved that problem real quick.

[Howesight]

I have had a number of German racks rebuilt over the years by Jorgen Automotive Corporation. They are the real deal! Quality is excellent and they can even rebuild your own rack if you don't want to use their core system. They send the rebuilt rack in a box with prepaid postage back to them so you can send your dead rack to them and claim your core charge back. Service desk personnel are excellent.

Here is the Jorgen website:

https://www.jorgenauto.com/rack-pinion/volkswagen.html

Have a look at some comments by some Audi geeks:

https://www.motorgeek.com/search.php?keywords=jorg...mit=Search
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'86 Syncro Westy SVX

[termuehlen]

I contacted Jorgen a few months back. They didn’t have any Vanagon cores, so I would have had to send mine in for rebuild. Turn around time was just too long for me. About 5 weeks at the time. So I bought a new one from Vancafe and have my old OE core sitting and waiting to send to Jorgen one day.
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1988 Westfalia automatic Subaru OBD1
1986 syncro tintop wbx

[SyncroHead]

[Franklinstower]

cip has new racks for $450 shipped, seems to be a pretty good price these days.
https://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=VWC%2D251%2D422%2D061
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'89 Westy - EJ25/22 Frank 4.44 5mt
'75 Miami Blue Sunroof FI Standard Bug

[ALIKA T3]

I used to sell the rebuild kit a few years ago as nobody else was offering it and I did an excellent how-to here.
They were sold only to rebuilders at the time and on the catalog they were under some kind of asian car, Toyota or something like that, it was a mistake on their listing. I had stumbled upon the correct part number on the scanned version of their paper catalog looking for something totally different, the description/application was for the Vanagon

Good quality, they are the kits with the darker blue rings sold under many brands, but it seems like they are not available easily these days. They never were cheap to begin with, so I had no interest in pursuing selling them higher than the competition...

I have heard and read bad reviews about the current available kit with the white rings but who knows how the units were before the rebuild... I have not tried them, to be cautious I think these are hard to source today too.

It`s hard to rebuild the racks these days, most cores are toast, it`s always a surprise upon disassembly but the state and cleanliness of the ram gives you a big hint before disassembly. You know what it swallowed with these steering boots torn out. ( I make and sell silicone boots for these, hint hint )
I do it for customers but the time spent on them is not cost efficient.

The new racks are cheap and good copies of the ZF units although I have heard good and bad things about them. They`re sold for dirt cheap on Alibaba, when they first came out I was tempted to buy some to try but the MOQ was too high, not to mention shipping, then other vendors sourced them so my idea was quickly over.

I think they should be ok if the lines are clean, new filter etc... I install a 3/8 magnetic filter sold mostly under the brand Raybestos.

Aloha!
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Silicone Steering Boots and 930 Cv boots for sale in the classifieds.
Syncro transmission upgrade parts in the Classifieds.
Subaru EJ22+UN1 5 speed transmission
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=416343
Syncro http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...num+gadget