Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 17:56:11 EDT
Reply-To: Oxroad@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Oxroad <Oxroad@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Will MK1 Scirocco steering wheel fit on Vanagon? - YES,
but.........
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
In a message dated 5/18/2003 10:38:21 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
JordanVw@AOL.COM writes:
<< yes it will fit - splines are the same - bolts right on - BUT your turn
signal wont automatically cancel anymore.
i thought about this swap but i dont wanna be driving down the road for 10
miles with my blinker on having people shoot me the finger.. >>
People constantly shoot me the finger. Tomorrow I'll try driving with the
blinker on and see if it's worse or better.
(I'm curious why the signal would not cancel. The the cancelling ring/plate
on the scirocco is different or non-eixistent?)
Asfor the smaller steering wheel--depending on the height of the driver--you
will lose visibility of the upper outside corners of the gauges. That is the
Speedo and tach. For whatever reason I seem to remember the tach was more
noticably obstructed as it blocked the 3,000-5,000 RPM range which some would
say is critical.If your 84 has the large analog clock instead of the tach
then the loss of visibility may be no big deal. (i.e. "It's about 3:05 or
3:10.")
I found with a smaller steering wheel--a south african leather wheel for the
microbus, ever so slightly smaller in diameter than the wheel on USA busses
with power steering, nad I'll bet a bit larger than the scirocco wheel-- I
lost a good portion of the upper right corner of the tachometer which was
blocked by the steering wheel. I put my gigantic stock 83 wheel back on with
a nice "leather" wrap and have been much happier being able to see and admire
the shift lines in the tach.
My height is 6' by the way, and I drive a Westfalia which puts the seat
height slightly heigher than a passenger bus as a result of the swivel
mechanism. I like long walks on the beach and hate mean people. I mention the
first two because they will effect visibility of the gauges in conjuction
with the size of the steering wheel.
I forget if all 84's have power steering. If you have manuel steering a
smaller wheel will make low speed or stopped steering somewhat more difficult.
As for the finger, I didn't notice any change in the number of times I get it
and the Jerk O** sign depending on the size of ther steering wheel. I keep
meaning to put a sign in the rear window that says, "It's not about you. It's
just slow."
Jeff
83.5 Westy
LA,CA
