Three Audis, only one runs...

[Tom Nas]

Hi all,

It's definitely not my lucky day today. Drained the battery for the second
time trying to start my '87 80 today, the car that always starts...

Anyway, I was casually looking to see if I could find anything wrong when I
found out that the air filter housing was rather loose. Ah, just fasten
that a little... nope, it's firmly attached to the carb. Found my problem:
the carb's no longer attached to the intake manifold! The bottom gasket has
torn cleanly in two, which explains the rough running, hard starts and
backfires I'd been experiencing over the last week or so. I'd guessed it
needed plug leads, which it clearly doesn't.

Looks like it shouldn't be too hard to change the gasket, even in an unlit
car park at night. Let's hope it'll be at least dry, as it's been raining
almost non-stop for the last coupla days here.
This also seems to shout 'wash the engine compartment, you fool' as the
previous owner's ignoring of the leaking valve cover gasket has covered the
entire engine in oil, including the intake manifold.
Oil + rubber = mush...

Looks like I'll be taking the '77 80 on a 180 km round trip tomorrow.
Fingers crossed.

Tom