1987 16valve Spec

[Badders81]

All,

I am the new proud owner of a 1987 Mk2 16 valve.  Having spent a year driving a new Alfa Romeo Brera, which may I add had to be replaced after just three months, I have taken the decision to opt for a more economical and hopefully enjoyable form of motoring.  The question I have is how would I find the original spec of the early 16 valve GTIs?  The one I have bought is in awesome condition, even though I haven't seen it in the flesh yet due to working in Canada, mainly standard spec however has a replacement steering wheel.  I have noticed that some of the earlier Mk2 GTIs have a different steering wheel to the more commonly featured one I have seen on 1989 models and later.  The car I have is the earliest 16 valve I have seen and therefore my question is which steering wheel should it have and secondly can both standard steering wheels be fitted as I prefer the later one?

Badders

[Chris-White]

My 87 valver has the early steering wheel splines, think they changed in 89? Early wheels have smaller splines and hence a smaller hole in the centre if you get what i mean?

Later wheels have a larger centre hole and therefore dont fit. However i believe you can get some hub pullers on the collar of a later steering column and remove it to enable you to fit an earlier wheel, so i guess wou could reverse that process to fit a later wheel to an early car.