Busted door locks

[E. Smith]

Mike,

I hear you. I agree that this car is worth maintaining well. I'm
rather looking forward to ownership of it and I fully expect some
repairs to be necessary. My friend who sold it to me was very upfront
with me about the repairs it has needed. I knew to expect anything to
break at any time. And the locks were already finicky when I bought
it.

I need to find a picture on the net of what one of those vacuum
capsules looks like (and what it does) as I have no idea.

-eiren.


On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 08:53:00 -0400, Mike Arman <armanmik at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Fix the locks. All of them.
> 
> This isn't a real big deal. You'll need a you-pull-it junkyard, a few
> hours, and not much money.
> 
> Go get all four door handles (check to see if they work, first!) and all
> five vacuum capsules. (There's one for the trunk, remember?)
> 
> Taking them off the donor car is easy, and if you break anything, it isn't
> your problem. Also, if you break anything, you'll remember not to break
> that part on YOUR car, right?
> 
> The vacuum capsules are easy to check. Wet your finger and place it over
> the vacuum inlet. If you can't move the actuator rod, the rubber diaphragm
> in the capsule is good, if you can, it is bad.
> 
> Here's what I see going on in the type 44 world - as these cars move
> further down the food chain, they are getting less and less maintenance.
> Type 44 Audis *require* consistent attention - it doesn't have to be very
> expensive if you do most of the work yourself, but it does take some time
> and skill (some of which can be learned "on the job".)
> 
> What is happening is that the older cars are accumulating so many problems
> with deferred maintenance ("Can I fix just ONE lock? Can I use something
> other than that expensive pentosin stuff? Can I drive anyway with a bad
> bomb?") that when anything serious breaks or a fender gets dented, the next
> stop is the junkyard - the car isn't worth fixing any more because it has
> too many other, unaddressed problems.
> 
> And you will find that the type 44 Audi is unique - it is hard indeed to
> replace this car with anything decent for comparable money. $2,000 can buy
> you some very, very good type 44 cars, or it can buy you a Ford Escort or a
> Chevvy Cavalier.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Mike Arman
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
> 



-- 
"This natural or organic order emerges when there is perfect balance
between the needs of the individual parts of the environment, and the
needs of the whole. In an organic environment, every place is unique
and the different places also cooperate, with no parts left over, to
create a global whole--a whole which can be identified by everyone who
is a part of it." -- Christopher Alexander as quoted in Peopleware 2nd
ed., Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister 1999