[200q20v] Distributor drive gear again and Audi Driver Magazine...

[Derek Pulvino]

Howdy all,

"...when we last left our friends on this journey, the idea was progressing,
but some problems had arisen with the numbers..."

Anyhow, if anybody remembers, there has been a thread cropping up from time
to time about having a replacement metal gear machined for the turbo and NA
20v plastic geared distributors.  At our last departure on this line, we had
the unfortunate timing of a simultaneous distributor gp, and many decided to
go the route of all out replacemnt.  At this point, I'd like to re-air this
thread/gp to people, and let people know that we are still moving ahead with
this.  The main thing that changed is our being able "to reach a broader
market" by way of publication of a letter in an Audi dedicated magazine.
For the uniniated, or those wanting a quick refresher, the letter detailing
the problem, and our solution is included in this message below.

Fellow lister Alan Cordeiro, has sourced out a machine shop that is willing
to do a run of these gears.  The price is anticipated to be in the $35
range, however, this estimate goes with the assumption of a run of 50 gears.
  So far, I've had 3 new responses from interested people in the last
2-days, and anticipate more.

At this time, if anybody is interested in joining in this gp, please let
either myself, Alan, or Bernie Benz know of your interest.  I hear the
magazine's on the shelves now, but I haven't been able to find a copy yet.

---------------------letter-----------
Howdy Folks,

Just got done reading the article on the Audi 90 Sedan in Audi Driver
Magazine. In the article, one of the common failures associated with the
vehicle was the distributor drive gear. The distributor drive gear on these
engines were manufactured of plastic to help minimize drive noise. The
unwanted side effect of this fix was premature drive gear failure.
Additionally, if the distributor was to ever develop an internal oil seal
leak, replacement of the seals would be nigh impossible without breaking the
unobtainium crafted drive gear.

Bosch and Audi's fix for this problem (broken drive gears) was to use a
metal drive gear on all replacement distributors for this vehicle.
Unfortunately, obtaining this gear requires the purchase of an entirely new
distributor. The same "fix" was also prescribed to cure dist. seal leaks. It
should be noted that this problem is common in both NA and turbo 20v,
5-cylinder engines (ie engine code 3b and 7a). I wanted to let people know,
that myself and some other people from the Audiworld 20020v mailing list are
working to put together a group buy of a replacement gear for these
distributors.

As Bosch will not provide only the gear, we have found a stateside, custom
gear manufactured facility that is willing to produce a run of these parts.
The price estimate at this time is between 35-38 USD per gear; a far cry
from Audi's 280 USD distributor replacement cost.

If anybody here is interested in picking up one of these parts, or has any
questions, please let me know at dbpulvino at hotmail.com. Also, if anybody
knows of other bulletin boards were we might find others interested in this
part, I'm all ears there as well.

Derek Pulvino

PS, this drive gear problem does not apply to the 10v, 5-cylinder engine.

-----------------------------end snip----------------

Thanks for letting me take up a little more bandwidth.

Again, let me or the others involved know if you're interested.  All the
usual disclaimers, no financial interest, etc, etc.

Derek Pulvino


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