[a-talk]

Not much unfortunately. The car continues to run well. I have a ton of updates planned, and a shed full of parts to back that up. Including some oddball wheels to keep people guessing.

The plan is to take the car off the road in a month or two, and finally tear into the suspension etc. and redo it all. I will take pics and post updates when it all happens, but it's been pretty quiet. Good news really .

 

[Kuma]

bump.

 

[a-talk]

Working on the rental property below . . .

Is preventing me from working on the beast . . . (so dirty! )

Plus those cute little ones take time (though they do hand me wrenches occasionally) . . .

And I have all of these upgrades waiting . . .
- 3 spoke sport steering wheel
- Koni struts
- S4 rear subframe with OEM sway bar
- vacuum brake boost conversion parts

Suffice it to say I do start the beast every week or two, and drive it around if possible. *More news after the holiday break *

bump.

 

[a-talk]

I found out I had a worn front upper strut mount that was causing my steering sloppiness. No problem - it's easy to change, and I had a known good one in my parts stash. Famous last words! The strut shaft cracked while trying to undo the nut! I was using proper tools, and hadn't even broken out the cheater pipe yet! So I had to pull the whole strut and Dremel that bitch off! Good thing I had Koni struts waiting in the wings.

Anyone have a pair of stock strut caps? The Bilstein-only caps do not seal like the stock ones (larger Inside Diamater for Bilstein strut tube). Looks like the PN is 431412047B, and WorldImpex has them for like $28 each.

 

[a-talk]

Hmm, these are looking good. Other than changing the lower control arms, what else would need to be modded to fit these UrS4/6 front struts to a 200?
Truthfully I already have NIB Konis, but am short on time - so the thought of picking up a pre-built set is attractive.

http://www.audifans.com/marketplace/show.php?table=pm_audifans_Parts&id=20545

 

[GTJeff]

For future reference torch those upper strut nuts and burn out all of the nylock plastic. Then they'll come of easy.

 

[a-talk]

It never occurred to me because I've removed plenty of these nuts over the years without incident. The struts were installed by the previous owner's mechanic, so I don't know if Loctite Red was used? And as I said, I didn't feel I gave it that much torque (I'm not *that* strong! )

But yeah, the next one will definitely get the torch treatment.

For future reference torch those upper strut nuts and burn out all of the nylock plastic. Then they'll come of easy.

 

[a-talk]

Torch worked beautifully to remove the second strut top nut. And it was very satisfying as well .

And a set of stock strut caps are on the way :thumbsup:.

 

[a-talk]

OK, it's time to update this thread, as I have been busy on a few projects on the car. We'll start with the upper strut mount upgrade:

Since my driver's front strut mount was way way gone, I took the opportunity to upgrade to the C4 strut mount system. I found a used set of C4 plates etc from Force5, cleaned 'em up and painted them, then mounted it all with new strut bearings, C4 mounts and washers, strut bellows and bump stops etc. It all went together very nicely, and I finally got rid of that front-end slop that I'd been chasing forever. Oh, and I threw in Koni front struts while I was in there.

Next update - sport steering wheel upgrade . . .


strut by a-talk, on Flickr

 

[a-talk]

Many have installed the early B5 sport steering wheel on older Audis. I've always loved this wheel, and have wanted to do this upgrade for quite some time. The classic 'glue on the cancel ring from your old wheel' trick worked great, but there were a few issues to deal with on a Type44 that I hadn't seen documented before.

1) The new wheel back face was hitting against the cover ring on the stalk assembly when fully tightened down. I had to get creative and cover things while I cut it down about 2mm with the Dremel. Note the rag and 'catch bowl' from the kitchen toolkit .

2) Not that it's difficult, but the column covers were kind of a pain. There is no OEM bolt-on solution to this one that I'm aware of. The answer - Dremel and check until it fits. And in my case, use vacuum line sliced lengthwise to hide some of the rough edges. Also, I ended up using the old cover face as a bolt-up template for the clock spring locating post (I just drilled a hole for it to fit into).

The result is a great-looking steering wheel that has a fat grip - YES .

Test-fitting the modified cancel ring before glue:

cancel ring mod by a-talk, on Flickr

Cutting the ring on the stalk:

cutting column covers by a-talk, on Flickr

Column covers with "beautification" vacuum line:

column covers by a-talk, on Flickr

Sport wheel installed and lookin' pretty:

new wheel installed 1 by a-talk, on Flickr

 

[a-talk]

After much deliberation and head-scratching, my vacuum brake booster conversion is finally finished! I wrote a how-to on Quattroworld HERE.

Pic of finished product:

booster vacuum line by a-talk, on Flickr

(*edit*)
Many thanks to Nick Lawrence, loxxrider and yodasfro for their advice on this one.

 

[peterpeterson]

oh yeah! That's sweet.

How do the brakes feel now?

 

[a-talk]

They feel good, just as solid as the old hydraulic booster to me. And the whole conversion was much cheaper than the $850 or so for a new hydraulic booster .

oh yeah! That's sweet.

How do the brakes feel now?

 

[peterpeterson]

I saw your writeup on QW. Can you go into more detail when you removed the pistons from the pump?

 

[a-talk]

I didn't take photos of that process, but it's pretty simple. There is a piston under each X cap on the PS pump. The front two X caps nearest the pulley provide the power to the brake boost. Remove the X caps, remove the pistons inside, reinstall X caps and the brake boost is disabled.

I saw your writeup on QW. Can you go into more detail when you removed the pistons from the pump?

 

[a-talk]

Here's an image explaining the PS pump mods. Original photos stolen from eBay, modified by me:

 

[a4v8swap]

Any way to repost the pics how you trimmed the trim to fit the steering wheel? They disappeared.

 

[Android222]

Is this conversion the same for 91 20v?

Looks like almost the same system although I don't have the lines going into the passenger side of the master.

 

[Android222]

Exactly what car is the b3 9" booster out of?
Passat/80?

 

[Android222]

Also did your brake light stay on after the conversion?
Because of low/no accumulator pressure?

Thanks for the info