In reply to Turbine :
Oh, no I meant those newer b6 wheels might looks snazzy in gold. The 1552 tarmacs actually look amazing in gold on my old '90.
In reply to Turbine :
Oh, no I meant those newer b6 wheels might looks snazzy in gold. The 1552 tarmacs actually look amazing in gold on my old '90.
In reply to ian sane :
Gotcha. Yeah, I bet! I'd love to have a set of those or something similar. Hopefully once the budget opens up a bit.
Welp, kinda lost motivation for a bit there, but this past weekend, I finally sat down to work on the Audi again and made a (very) slight amount of progress.
First, the wheels are ready for paint, I think. I've gone through about 20 different points where I've deemed them 'good enough' but the paint finally arrived, so I'm calling it. I decided on the same antique brass paint that Curtis used for his van. Pretty excited about it. No pictures yet, but I'll take some once I start putting color down. It's finally warming up and drying out here in Ohio, so I should get some good days to paint later this week.
Next, scope creep. From the start, there were a handful of parts that I knew I wanted for the car. Thankfully, some of them (euro headlights and v8 tail lights) came with the shell. And while I've all but given up hope on ever getting my hands on a '92 Ur-S4 rear sway bar, or the upgraded Apikol version, another one of my holy grail parts came up for sale.
This is a torsen center section from a d11 v8 Quattro rear differential. It'll replace the open/lockable center section in the stock diff and should be a direct drop in. The easy button would've been to buy a complete differential assembly since the whole thing would just drop right in, but I couldn't find any that weren't on the other side of the country. The lockable diff is cool, but is really only meant for 15 mph and below. This should make the rear end of the car more lively, and will compliment that rear sway bar (if I ever find one). The torsen rear diffs have a reputation for breaking with hard launches and don't like much more than 450 whp/tq, but I'm not looking to drag race this thing. While the differential is out, I'm probably gonna drop the rest of the rear suspension and subframe to clean it up and install new bushings. New diff mounts at the very least.
And finally, in a bit of stupid luck, I caught a break on the shifter. I had been thinking that the shift bushings were shot since I bought the car. I'd managed to procure a new bushing thanks to another forum user, but hadn't gotten around to installing it yet. Audi put an exhaust hangar near the tail of the transmission, and, while I was poking around the car yesterday, I noticed just how much the transmission was sagging due to the weight. After putting a floor jack under the transmission to compensate, the shifter works perfectly. I feel stupid, but pretty happy.
Things happen, I haven't even taken the snows off of my 80q yet, and the Carlisle show is next weekend! I need to do a couple things to get her ready for the meet, but not much.
I'm glad you found some of the parts you were looking for, as I know how hard that can be. The shifter thing, don't feel bad, we have all done it. Keep up the good work, and it will be ready before you know it
Wheels are done! Maybe. I might do another coat or two of clear. I'm absolutely loving the color though. They definitely photograph better than they actually look. The paint really brought out some of the imperfections in my bondo work, but not bad for a first attempt I guess. For reference, this was my starting point.
And this was one of the better ones.
So now that this is done, it's back to mechanical stuff. Probably gonna start the rear suspension teardown to install the Torsen diff, and I might have a line on a rear swaybar after all.
Started the rear suspension teardown this past weekend, but first, time to set the car down and check out the fitment with the 5 spokes. Looks good, imo!
But then it was back up on jackstands. The handbrake didn't work well, and the open diff kept me from loosening the axle and driveshaft bolts. Things look a little crusty, but I only had to fight one bolt on the driveshaft flange.
I took a little time to set up my new air compressor and hose reel (nevermind my junk pile, I haven't been good about scrapping things lately), which was a good move since the driveshafts and axles had frozen to the diff flanges. With the car on jack stands, I wasn't able to get enough behind a hammer to break the shafts free, so I used my air hammer. Hopefully I didn't do any damage to the bearings. I rotated the driveshaft as I went to try to avoid flat spotting. I guess we'll see.
So why do all of this work on a car that still doesn't run yet? I'm stupid. BUT I managed to find and secure a full suspension setup from a '92 urs4. For those who might not know, the 92 S4 and urs6 Avant were the only C4 chassis cars equipped with a rear sway bar from the factory. The knuckles and subframe have special provisions for the swaybar links and brackets. This parts lot also comes with the front sway bar (28mm vs the 24mm one in the 200 currently) and Sport springs. I probably won't use either of these since my car's already on H&R Sports and I'm trying to make the handling more neutral, but I might be able to sell them for slight recoup down the road.
I also picked up a full set of rear end bushings from Verkline and new camber arms and ebrake cables from FCP Euro. Hopefully I can knock all of the rear suspension out now and not have to deal with it again.
The UrS parts are a good score! I wouldn't worry about the CV's too much. I've used hammers, and air hammers quite often to break them free.
As for the "hand brake does work so well" it's probably the calipers. All of these pre A cars are notorious for the ebrake pins getting corroded and sticking.
Yeah, good call on the calipers. I guess it's time to spring for rebuild kits. Seems like the only really heavy corrosion on this car so far has been e-brake related lol
Not sure if you've seen this or not but bids are still quite low
In reply to trumant :
Whoa that's nice! Seems like someone will be getting a steal at that rate. It seems like the market is slowly heating up for the urS cars, but they're still pretty undervalued (imo) compared to their BMW and Mercedes counterparts. If I were in the market, I'd be all over this. Seems to have all the right parts
Dunno about that, these are cars that can have a lot of issues and parts supply is sometimes non existent. You need to be an enthusiast and a wrench to own one. I had a 92 S4 12 years ago and some parts back then were no longer available...
In reply to docwyte :
True. Thankfully, the hunt and the wrenching are part of the fun for me.
Maybe one day Audi Tradition will come around and start supporting US enthusiasts, but I'm not holding my breath. I can't explain why I like these things so much, but I do. I don't think there's been a day that I didn't regret selling my urS6. I can't say the same about any of my other cars
More progress over the weekend including finally getting the subframe and rear diff out of the car. I guess it's a good thing it hasn't been driveable because the rear brakelines were downright scary. Looks like DIY'ing hardlines is in my future. Should be a good learning experience
In other news, 92 urs4 rear suspension stuff is here, so I started removing the old bushings. Without a doubt one of my least favorite automotive related things to do, but it'll be worth it.
And I found a pretty rare set of 17" OZ Ultraleggeras for sale locally for a pretty ridiculous price. I know I just refinished the 5 spokes, but I couldn't resist these. The snow tires might end up on the 5 spokes.
I would've started tearing down the diff to install the Torsen, but SWMBO's Pilot needed a new control arm. It was a pretty annoying job, and that was before I ripped the boot on the new OE LCA while trying to install it. Had to buy a FLAPS brand LCA so that it'd be ready for the week, so I might be doing this again sooner than I'd like. Oh well.
Is there a worse automotive job than replacing bushings? If so, I haven't found it yet.
Here are all of the suspension bits cleaned up and hit with a coat of POR-15. Still need to finish up the rear diff bracket and rear uprights.
On a more interesting note, if things keep going the way they are at work, I should be ready to pick up an engine in the next month or two.
No super interesting updates yet, but I did manage to make quite a bit of progress in the last month. I finished painting the suspension bits and installed all of the new bushings. Then tried my hand at making new brake hardlines (I made a whole separate thread detailing some blunders here-don't cheap out on materials lol). And finally, pressed new wheel bearings into the rear uprights.
At the end of the weekend, I was able to assemble the diff carrier/differential/rear subframe assembly and install it in the car. Some of the hardware was beyond reuse, so once my order from McMaster arrives, I'll be ready to put the rest together, I think.
On a whim, I found a D2 A8 rear caliper and bought it. The bolt spacing is identical to the stock caliper, and to my eye, the offset looks right. I'm really hoping it is. The D2 caliper isn't really a performance upgrade, but the e-brake assembly is much better designed. The original calipers are notorious for seizing-the e brake mechanism is on the top of the caliper, which allows water to accumulate in and on the caliper. If it works, I'll buy another. If not, I can probably resell this thing, or failing that, I'm not out much.
Hopefully the engine will happen somewhere around mid October to early November. We'll see.
All back together, minus the exhaust, which I'm leaving off for now.
No real nasty surprises during reassembly, and the D2 S8 calipers bolted right up. As much as I want to get it off of jack stands and wheel it out for a quick wash, I'm gonna let it sit for another week to check for leaks in my homemade brake lines.
Just found this thread. Had a 5000CS Quattro with a manual and locking diffs. What fun car, back then you could still find gravel roads close to my house ... they probably paved them because of me and that car lol.
Are you following Practical Enthusiast on YouTube??
In reply to Slippery :
Nice! Those early cars are so cool. I honestly think they sound better than the 20v cars do. There aren't any gravel roads in my area anymore either, but there are some solid backroads that I'm looking forward to hitting once the car is running. And I'm close enough to Hocking Hills for when I really need a fun drive.
Thanks for the rec on Practical Enthusiast! I thought I knew of most of the 5 cylinder channels on YouTube. Looking forward to catching up on his project
Back on 4 wheels! For a second at least. Still dialing in the camber. Once that's done, it'll be onto the front. At least one of the control arms needs replaced, and I'll probably just do all of the bushings while I'm in there. Not too excited about going through all of this again, but thankfully, there are only about 8 bushings total in the front (4 in the subframe and 4 total across the swaybar). Might as well do it now because I know I'm not going to want to do this once it's running again
Alright, front subframe. Let's go.
That was quick! Maybe this won't be so bad!
Wait, that doesn't look right. berkeley.
Double berkeley.
Oh no.... well... possible to fix it but how hard to get a good, used replacement?
I've got some leads on a replacement, but nothing concrete yet. Thankfully, as far as I can tell, the front subframe isn't 20v specific, so I should be able to use one from any Typ44 Audi.
That's great! I saw your post about it on discord. Hopefully a good replacement will be found easily.
In reply to de80q :
Thanks man! Yeah, we'll see. It's pretty annoying, but this is really the only major setback I've had so far, so I can't be too upset
On a lighter note, this (just the engine) should be in my possession by the end of the week
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