Creaking noise from rear end.

[GH77]

Hi Frank,

That's super generous of you and I'll be delighted to accept your offer of the bolts and washers. They're definitely in better condition than my salvaged ones!

I'll send you a PM with my details as I'd like to send you a PayPal (or similar) deposit at least for the loan of the tool if you aren't looking to charge a hire fee. And some extra to cover your postage too, of course. We can agree all that offline if you like.

Thanks again,

Gregor

[GH77]

Having been in PM contact with Frank (Spannerrash) he's posting me up his bolts and tools for which I'm genuinely grateful. Both to him and also to the spirit of this forum

So, in the interests of using the tool and posting back to him quickly I thought I'd have a go at seeing if my spare rear hubs could be used as part of the 'off the car build-up'. The more I can build up off the car with new parts, the quicker and easier the restoration ought to be. Old out and new in. That's the theory anyway.

I was faced with properly rounded driveshaft bolts (see pictures) But victory was mine in the end. After a bit of not-very-pretty nuclear welding and my trusty Milwaukee impact gun.

After the new nut was welded on it really didn't take much for the gun to shock it loose tbf. I'd applied some MAPP Gas heat beforehand but, on reflection, that was probably a waste of time given the heat I'll have put in through welding anyway. I purposefully overdid it on the welding as conservative blobs on the first attempt just split off straight away. And I probably couldn't have done it much neater if I'd tried anyway

Managed to get all the single-piece bushes removed okay using a 10T press at the garage (had to burn out the centres of the big trapezium link ones to get better access to press the steel outers - that's how the boys at the garage routinely do it anyway, so they say) Not much sign of galvanic corrosion, I have to say. They are just really tight. Gives me confidence in using the steel bushes.

Interestngly, this Ruville wheel bearing kit appears to supply the elusive eccentric bolts and washers. Part of the Schaeffler Group who appear to supply FAG, INA and LUK. I think I trust FAG and INA as brands, but does anyone know about Ruville? Maybe just the same stuff packaged in different colours? The equivalent FAG kit includes the eccentric washer but not the bolt, judging by the pictures. I've messaged them to ask why and will feed back to the forum.

Wishbones cleaned up nicely with wire brush, Swarfega and Scotchy pads. Might follow Frank's example and paint them though.

.

[spannerrash]

I've always used Skf wheel bearings. From what I can remember the original AUDI ones are Skf. They can be such a pain to change I didn't want to risk an unknown brand. That's unknown to me anyhow.

Make sure you lubricate the new bushes as you fit them. I forgot on my first one in the upper control arm and it got stuck half way. It picked up on the aluminium, jammed and then just started to crush as I pushed it in. Wasted a genuine Audi (£60) bush.

[GH77]

Good advice, thanks. What did you use to lubricate the bushes? Anything in particular to use/avoid? I believe Copper Grease, for example, plays right into the hands of galvanic corrosion.

Got this back from Schaeffler this morning. Can't over express my surprise at getting such a quick response from a big company about such a small matter!

Dear Madam or Sir,

the following message was submitted:

713 6103 90 Wheel Bearing Kit

Hi,

Can you please tell me what exactly is included in this kit?

Looks like the eccentric washer is included, judging by the picture. But is the eccentric bolt also included? Doesn't appear in the picture.

Found a similar Ruville item which shows the eccentric bolt in their picture.

Is the eccentric bolt actually included in the FAG kit and it's just the picture which is wrong?

And if it's really just the same item in different packaging, it would be great if you can let me know that too

Thanks in advance,

Gregor


Good Morning Mr Harris,

Just been looking into this, and the eccentric bolt has been dropped from the bill of materials for this wheel bearing kit.

The bearing and the accessories would have been the same in both kits. However the Ruville brand is not available in the UK any more.

I have emailed back to see if they've maybe any old 'new stock' of the eccentric bolts, but I doubt they will if they've been taken out the kit. Oh well.

The Febi 3226 split bushes are an exact match for the genuine Audi ones 4D0505171H which arrived safe and sound from Latvia today. Except for being encased in steel rather than aluminium, of course. As previously reported, galvanic corrosion doesn't seem to have been a problem in my 2nd hand trapezium arms so I'm quite happy to fit half genuine and half Febi steel. (Or maybe buy another 2 Febi and leave the genuine ones to my kids so they'll generate a million quid for them at auction in 50 years time?)

Steel encased bushes are 145g each while the aluminium bushes are just 62g. The overall potential saving of 332g surely won't affect my 0-60 that much?


.

[The_Laird]

Gregor
What did you use on the headlights? They look amazing!

[GH77]

Originally Posted by The_Laird

What did you use on the headlights?

Thanks, Jim. Blood, sweat and tears mostly

It's a really nerve wracking process sanding your headlights until they're opaque. Then the next pass with finer grit paper appears to do nothing at all, your heart starts thumping and there's a sick feeling in your stomach as you keep repeating "oh no, what have I done".

I bought the Holts restoration kit and it's okay for the most part. Just work up through the grits, coarse to fine. Didn't like the result using their 3000 grit discs on the drill attachment as it seemed to leave bad swirls and pigtail marks from the edge of the disc. I just did the 3000 by hand using wet and dry in the end. Their paste isn't all that gritty so I added in a little G3 Professional Scratch remover which seemed to help remove the 3000 sanding marks. The wee sponge they give you in the kit is pretty good.

I think I used the Farecla polish on them after that too. Then it was finished using the aerosol sealant in the kit. That stuff is proper slippy btw when it gets on your wooded floor. Family not happy!

Best advice I'll give is to go heavier than you think you should on the first two coarser grits. At 20+ years old it takes quite a lot to get the plastic level to all the pitting. Just need to have confidence that the polishing stages will indeed repair the initial damage you are doing.

The aerosol sealant was enough to do 6 headlights. (I practised on a cracked spare first, did the D3's, and re-did one of the D2's as I wasn't happy with it initially) Can't seem to find the aerosol on its own anywhere.

Washing the insides really helps too, I think. Just be sure to blow dry them somehow as water spots on them quite easily.

It's a time consuming process. I suppose I wasn't in a rush but it probably took most of the day to do the pair properly. I was in there initially to replace the headlight aim motor so the insides got a good clean out too.

[The_Laird]

Thanks Gregor. I’m pretty sure that I’ve got a spare set of headlights in the garage, so I’ll have a go and see how it goes. I’ve done it once before with PlastEx (I think that’s what it’s called), but I didn’t get anything like your results!

[GH77]

Have made a bit of progress on pressing in the bushes. But mostly used my time at the garage on Saturday to separate the old wheel bearings from my spare hubs to see if the hubs can be resused for building up off the car. Think they will be okay. Will be sensible to fit new bearings and I think I'll go for FAG brand. The Ruville brand isn't directly available in the UK (although it is from Autodoc) but the guy at Shaeffler confirmed that the eccentrics aren't supplied in either brand's box. So no point in paying extra for an unknown brand and not getting the eccentrics anyway. Frank has kindly sent me his old ones which look like they'll clean up well enough.

Couple of points to note which might be of help to others:

• Removing bolted on wheel bearings - unbolt the 4 bolts, screw them back in a couple of threads and evenly hammer on them to separate the bearing from the housing. On my fronts I had chiselled out them out by going at the wheel bearing from behind. Which seems really daft now I know the better method.
  
• Hub flange - separates quite easily from the wheel bearing in a vice with some hits from an appropriately sized socket. No real need for a press. Lighter blows on the first one left a piece of outer race on it whereas a couple of really sharp blows on the second separated the bearing intact from the hub flange.

• The apertures for the bushes on the arms have tapered edges and the bushes should be pressed in ONLY from the tapered side. I only noticed the taper when seeing some aluminium starting to peel off the second bush whereas the first one hadn't. Caught it after a mm or so, so no damage done. And lesson learned.

I also managed to clean up the aluminium arms a bit more. Best tool, short of blasting them, turns out to be a nylon bristle attachment for a drill. See pics. Probably could have done this in the first place and not had to bother with trying to clean conventionally. Although removing grease and dirt chemically would still be a good idea.

Think I'll go with a mix of genuine Audi aluminium split bushes and the Febi steel ones. The aluminium ones are really easy to chisel out so my thinking is that, if I ever go to replace them again (unlikely!), then the aluminium ones will come out easily which will then give easy access to press out the steel ones from behind even if they do suffer galvanic corrosion. Steel does not chisel out easily!

[GH77]

Making progess on the rear-end rebuild. Thanks to Frank's kind loan of the split-bush-pressing-tool and a bit of paint, things are starting to look ready to go on. At some point . . . . .

Used Tetrosyl acid etch primier for the base and Autotek alloy wheel paint for the top coat. No idea how durable these will prove to be but they look good as ornaments at least.

Bought the FAG rear bearings and the kit does include everything except the eccentric bolt, just as they said. It does have the eccentric washer and a new driveshaft bolt however. The new bearing to housing bolts are also there but don't look like they have the greenish coating to prevent galvanic corrosion as far as I can see. Might just reuse the old ones as they're in decent nick.

Somewhat disappointed to have CHINA glaring at me from the face of the bearing though. Contacted Shaeffler again to query this and got the 'all made to our exacting specifications with regular inspections' spiel. Guess time will tell if they'll last 20 years and 174k like the originals have . . . . .