[200q20v] close...but no cigar

[Phil Rose]

At 12:47 PM -0400 10/10/2000, Forhan, Thomas wrote:

>I also had the drivers door lock fail awhile back, I  had this happen on my
>old 1990 200 so I knew the moment the key went to the right without
>resistance what was going on.  I bought the fix kit and then opened up the
>door on Saturday. Whoa-it already had the stamped steel arm, instead of pot
>metal, but the little nylon clip that goes into the arm had failed, allowing
>the rod to drop out. Local dealer b.o'd on the clip, so I ordered one ($1.65
>-cheapest Audi fix yet) and meanwhile jury-rigged an attachment with some
>stainless steel seizing wire.

I did my very first door dismantling yesterday. Yep,  I had the classic,
broken lock-lever syndrome (driver's door), except in my case it was the
real thing--no $1.65 reprieve such as Tom got. Things seemed to go pretty
much according to the various instructions. I removed the old parts,
dismantled the old lock cylinder and installed the tumblers, etc in the new
one. I even got that damn circular spring reinstalled without too much
agony. So far, so good.

Next, I took care to align the matching half-teeth between the alarm
(timing) gear and the new lock lever gear. When all seemed to be in proper
position, I fumbled for a while with my circlip pliers but I finally had
the circlip (retainer) snap into place, and the job was done. Well, or so
it seemed...

The problem is that although the key now works to lock/unlock all doors, it
fails to activate the alarm system (i.e. no "beep"). This is because I
evidently failed to get the gear teeth into proper alignment.  (BTW, the
passenger door lock will activate the alarm system properly, so I know my
problem is definitely incorrect gear alignment in the driver's lock. Ugh!)

I want to take things apart (again) to reposition the alarm-timing gear,
but now a major obstacle is that I'm finding it extremely difficult
(impossible?) to _remove_ that recently installed circlip. My cheap circlip
tool (snap-ring?) was adequate for installing the circlip, but it doesn't
seem up to the job of  _removing_ it. Sadly, the old-style retainer was
quite easy to remove with just a screwdriver, but the new-style snap-ring
seems tough to remove. Any advice (other than "just leave it be")?


Phil Rose				Rochester, NY
'91 200q				mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net