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D2 - Axles, Brakes, Suspension and Steering Brakes, Springs, shocks, steering racks, steering columns, suspension arms, wheel hubs etc.

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  #11  
Old 9th August 2015, 09:25 PM
Nick Jones Nick Jones is offline
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Today was the day.......

First undo the outer ends to see how big a fight they were going to put up. In fact not that bad apart from trouble holding the centre still with silly little 8mm hex. Patience, a wire brush and plenty of plus gas working in the end and apart from the exposed ends of the thread (which were the cause of the trouble) the assembly was rust free inside.

The inner end on the LHS was less pretty. I already knew this was really stuck and as mentioned by others, grinder access is a bit limited......
so I used this

Yep, a hacksaw blade taped to a stick...... You can laugh, but it did the job in under 10 minutes. The other end (rear) I managed to get the grinder in so that took about 10 seconds!


Then it was time to investigate why Audi say the early and late arms are not interchangeable........
..... and I have no idea why they say this. As far as I can see they are a direct swap - just add an M12 x 120mm bolt, nyloc nut and a couple of washers. The outer bush on the new link that replace the older balljoint style has a profiled end on the inner tube that fits perfectly into the conical recess in the link arm




(That's a 130mm bolt in the pic - I trimmed it back to about 115mm)

It all bolts straight up (apart from some messing with levers and bit of rope to drag everything back into line. Everything dosed with plenty of copper slip.



All back together. RHS was easier as the inner bolt suddenly decided to come free (I wasn't as violent with this side during the exploratory ops) which spared me the hacksaw games.

Interestingly enough, both the original outer balljoints were absolutely fine. Arms would be re-usable if the inner bushes were available.

Now I can get the alignment done properly

Nick
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Old 13th August 2015, 09:36 PM
Nick Jones Nick Jones is offline
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Went back to get the alignment done yesterday.

Rear went no problem. I'd even go the camber spot-on with my home made camber gauge.

However, the front refused to adjust apparently due to the threaded stubs spinning in the bushes (!) in the track rod ends (very odd place for a bush IMO). I've fitted new rod ends this evening which was pretty easy. I'm confused though. Although the stubs do turn in the bushes, it takes a fair amount of effort to cause this (Vice and stilson wrench involved) whereas the adjustment threads are very free running.....

Try again tomorrow....... take 3!

Nick
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  #13  
Old 18th August 2015, 01:39 PM
Nick Jones Nick Jones is offline
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Track rod ends were defective and now renewed (very easy). All tracked up now.

Was still pulling fairly strongly to the left but I had been advised by the tracking man that this might happen and to try swapping the wheels front to rear. I was a bit sceptical but it's worked.

Car now drives straight and un-twitchy for the first time in my ownership.

Marvellous - a win!

Nick
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  #14  
Old 18th August 2015, 01:45 PM
mattylondon mattylondon is offline
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Excellent result Nick
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Matt

2004 A8 3.7q, 1998 A4 2.8q, 1994 Coupe 2.8q SORN,
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