Nuts to me!

[Alex Kowalski]

I was almost there.  The bushings were pressed into the control arms, the
parking brake cables were threaded back into place and reattached to the
balancer at the handle, the rotors, calipers and lines were ready to go, but
I *had* to decide to replace the fasteners, didn't I?

The long, 105mm bolt that goes through the hub assembly was a problem to
find, but even more impossible were the 17mm serrated hex flange nuts that
hold the forward trap. arm mount to the body.  Even McMaster-Carr only has
them up to 15mm across the flats.  Not good enough.  Don't even think about
an ordinary hardware store, and Home Depot and Lowe's just giggle at you.
NAPA was no help.  The local ACE hardware told me I might as well be hunting
unicorns with a divining rod.

My local Audi dealer, however, found them on the fiche and they are still
available.  I'll have them early next week.  The price for four serrated hex
flange nuts in 17mm, you ask?  $9 and change.  Why am I doing this?
Well, the possibility of mercury poisoning during early childhood initially
crossed my mind, but the real reason is that the nuts are in bad shape and
the serrations on the bottom are serrations in image only, now.  I didn't
want to screw the back end of the car back together with those fasteners.
And so I tithe up my tribute to the Audi Gods, after a long odyssey.

Alex Kowalski
'87 5KCSTQ (New Nuts!)
'86 5KCSTQ (Going nowhere until next month)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kowalskirsflickr/