5000tq Rough Running.. stumble, ickyness!

[Daniel Cronise]

Hello y'all,
This'll be my first post, although I've been reading for quite a while now.
Thanks to you, I adopted a 5000 which needed a friend! I've got an '86
5000tq (which I proudly became the owner of a few months ago :-) which is
having a wee bit o' trouble at the moment.  I just replaced the fuel pump to
fix a problem with the fuel pressure - which was fixed. (yay!)
Unfortunately, while messing around under the hood, I'm afraid I messed
something up.  Prior to the new pump, I had been having some hesitation
problems at high load.  The problem quickly worstened (sp?), and before I
could check it out, I was left at the side of the road, calling home for a
ride.  I mentioned the problem to a co-worker, who suggested I try the fuel
filter.  Bingo! Replaceing the fuel filter got me back on the road... for
two or three weeks, that is.  One day, it stalled while driving...  I had to
wait a couple minutes before it would start up again.  I drove about 500
feet, and then it stalled again.  Waited a couple minutes, started up..
Rinse and repeat.  This time, I checked the flow from the return line..
nothing.  Then, I checked the flow from the filter...  a little.. but not
much.  That's when I replaced the fuel pump.  BUT, over the day or two that
I was waiting for the part to arrive, I decided to take a glance under the
hood, and possibly clean up a few things.  I pulled the larger rubber hoses
(michelin man, included) around the left side of the engine to inspect the
area and brush off some of the rust/dirt/misclinaneous-crud that was around
there (yes, I did cover the inlets/outlets of all the components as to not
spill junk into the,) .  I just got everything back together today, and the
car started, but it's running terrible... not at all as it had before I
replaced the pump.  The only problem I had before (beside the stalling that
put it in the garage) was the need to keep the engine revs up until the car
warmed up...  but once it was warm, it ran pretty nice, except for that
problem I mentioned earlier where the car would buck and hesitate at high
load.  Now, the engine runs very rough - every so often the rpm's take a
dive, and she just about stalls.  Pushing the pedal helps a little, but it
takes a moment to respond, and it seems to choke on it a moment after it
responds.  I had a noisy lifter before, but now it seems the entire head has
joined the symphony.  No power, either.  I checked the spark plug wires for
placement, since I had pulled them to install a new loom...  funny thing is
that the TDC mark on the flywheel seems to be 180degrees to the marker dot
on the cam drive wheel. (That's contrary to the Bently manual which says
that both should be aligned.  The car DID have a clutch job before coming to
me..  could the mechanic have worked on the flywheel and attached it 180
degrees off? or am I missing something?)  What else..  Oh yes - checked the
cold start valve for leaks, and it dosn't.. actually, it dosn't even
activate (it's 45 F outside)..  volts from the connector seem to be fine,
though.. and flow from the fuel distributor.  (doubt that makes a difference
- that's just ANOTHER problem, prolly)  So, I'm a little stumped right now.
I'm going to go investigate the vaccum hoses, but I went through them when I
had everything apart, so I'm not too confident that I'll find something,
there.  Any help would be appreciated!  I absolutely love the car and want
to drive it again soon... but the cost of mechanics is much too high for my
limited income (thanks to college loans, ha ha!) ..  and so, I've recently
embraced the passion of auto-repair.  (which means that I prolly know much
less than I seem to know about the Audi. ;-) WHEW! Thanks a bunch!!
Exspecially for reading all that ;-) Happy driving!

Cheers,
Dan Cronise

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