Front Shock Replacement: Workaround or Tool needed

[Fred Munro]

Tom;

Jack up the car, support the front hub, lift the dust boot, and remove the
cap with a big pipe wrench. You can get the wrench through the spring coils
onto the cap. You may want to soak it well in penetrating oil first -
sometimes these are quite rusty.

Fred Munro
'94 S4

----- Original Message -----
From: "Forhan, Thomas" <Thomas.Forhan at mail.house.gov>
To: <200q20v at audifans.com>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2001 1:04 PM
Subject: Front Shock Replacement: Workaround or Tool needed


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> And my second question for the day:
>
> I bought 4 Bilstein HDs  and started to swap out the old ones over the
> weekend. I thought I would do the fronts first, since the "top down"
method
> seemed so easy....
>
> Well, once I got in there, the big problem is the threaded collar holding
> the shock in. Bentley calls for a "2078" (book  is at home- maybe is a
> "2079") which must be about a foot long hollow spark plug wrench sort of
> thing, except its business end fits into a hex shaped recess about 30mm in
> diameter on the top of the collar. Even my local friend who has massive
> collection VAG tools from a VW dealer that went belly up in NY state a
while
> back did not have the tool.
>
> Any other ideas? I figure I could abandon the top down approach, remove
the
> strut and spring, and try to get it off with a pipe wrench on the bench,
but
> if you know a better way, or want to lend or rent the right tool, please
let
> me know!
>
> I'm trying to get the beast back on the road for a Thanksgiving trip:
> DC-Chicago-DC.
>
> Thanks again
>
> Tom F.
> 91 200q20v Avant
> and a bunch of Vanagons
>
>