Scary night update

[Cody Forbes]

> Let me also note that yesterday, when the car was shaking and acting
> like the
> wheel was going to fall off, the car was hard to keep in the lane
> (this is
> where the pucker factor was at full force) as if the alignment
> changed when I
> was on the gas. Also, there was no change in the condition when I
> locked the
> center or rear diffs. But in an instant, everything was fine, like
> nothing happened. It just started to happen more often and for longer
> periods of time as the trip progressed. The worst was when I was
> driving with everything going good,
> and a tractor trailer passed me, and then my steering would act up
> and the
> car wanted to swerve until I let off the gas.
>
> Jim Furdyn
> 1983 UrQuattro #170
> 1987 4000cs Q
> 1987 Euro 200/5000cs TQ 282,000 miles
> 1996 A6 Quattro Avant
> 1987 Mercedes Benz Truck model 1219

You have a bad CV joint, almost no question in my mind. I had one do that to 
me not more then an hour before it shattered into a million pieces. What I 
think is happening is one ball moves out of place on the outer joint, and 
when it does it gets stuck. When it gets stuck it ends up pushing the wheel 
away from the axle, so as the axle turns its pushing the wheel left and 
right.

I should have thought of this sooner, I had almost the exact same situation. 
Was driving south on I-95, and all of the sudden out of the blue the 
steering wheel was nearly ripped from my hands as it started going left to 
right. I immediately pulled over and saw NOTHING wrong after a 5 minute 
check over. I started down the road again, only to have it happen again not 
a mile later. I pulled over....nothing wrong. Finally when I made it to my 
destination as I turned into the parking lot *BANG* goes the exle. I saw 
balls rollong down the road, and bits of the cage from the joint. Since it 
had completely exploded and relieved itself of all of its guts (no cage, no 
balls, just the shaft and cup) I just locked the center diff and kept about 
my business. When I got back to where there were tools I removed the axle, 
but since the outer half wasn't attached anymore I put it back so it would 
still hold the bearing and hub in. The car was effectively rear wheel drive 
for the following week until I got a new front axle. Boy was that 
fun....500hp very nose heavy RWD 5ktq, good times.


-Cody Forbes
http://www.5000tq.com
'86 5ktq
'86 5ktq
'86 5k-t-q
'87 5ktq - Fast.