Miscellaneous Musings

[Alex Kowalski]

One other "Miscellaneous Musing"

The Audfans archives are an incredible wellspring of material, but I'm also
wondering whether anyone has ever persuaded people like Huw Powell, Scott
Mockry, etc., to take the contents of their websites and turn them into a
downloadable PDF?  Ditto the Knowledge Base here at Audifans.  As wonderful
as the Internet is, I still don't have a monitor in the engine compartment
of my car, and I'd really like to have a PDF version of these valuable
works.  If Scott and Huw and ... could get together, I'd pay for the
material.

What I want when I work on my cars now is to have a printed version of Huw's
pages, a printed version of everything Scott has on his website, a printed
version of the Audi KB relating to my car, and the Bentley.

Then, if I have more questions, go back inside and search the archives.

Just a thought,
Alex


On 5/21/06, Alex Kowalski <hypereutectic1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  BTW just in the "miscellaneous musings" file:
>
> It seems to me that as these cars get older, no matter how well they're
> running, you need to do a full, thorough inspection and fixer-up once a
> year.  All the work I've done so far could have been handled in a weekend if
> I had planned that in advance.  For example, while I was reinstalling the
> plastic plenum shroud, I had a chance to take a good look at the vacuum and
> breather hoses.  Everything was fine, no splits, just a little bit of oil
> mistiness on one, however, I did find two loose hose clamps:  one in the
> large line that goes directly into the airbox assembly.
>
> It just POURED rain where I live and I went back out to check my plenum
> cover and recirc door repairs:  tight as a drum.  And I ran the car during
> the storm and the climate control system is now working perfectly, pumping
> out nice, relatively dry air through the proper vents at the right time.  A
> few months ago I swapped the A/C programmer with one from Force5 and it's
> good to know that this one is still working well.
>
> I would advise anyone who owns one of these cars of this vintage to pick
> up a spare A/C programmer the next chance they get.  The problem is that the
> vacuum solenoids go south, but if you have two or three, as I do, you can
> swap it relatively easily and/or cobble together a good one using the parts
> from others.  I think we're in the phase of these car's lives where saving
> good spares is essential to their use over the next ten years, and every
> year you need to do a thorough once-over.
>
> Alex Kowalski
> '87 5KCSTQ
> '86 5KCSTQ
>
>
> On 5/21/06, Alex Kowalski <hypereutectic1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >  I was thinking of that but had the epoxy handy.  It seems sturdy at
> > this point, but if it fails again that's going to be the next step.  The
> > cross-piece where the spring connects up snaps almost exactly in the middle
> > and then the spring just sneaks its way between the two halves.  Thanks for
> > the suggestion about the airbox.  That clip at the back is almost impossible
> > to see, much less open and close, unless you are PlasticMan.
> >
> > Alex Kowalski
> > '87 5KCSTQ
> > '86 5KCSTQ
> >
> > PS The archives were slow today for reasons I don't understand, but
> > after a half hour of getting back partial pages, I gave up.
> >
> >  On 5/21/06, Kneale Brownson <kneale at coslink.net > wrote:
> > >
> > > If you'd been able to access the archives more easily, you'd have run
> > > across postings recommending installing a metal bridge over the
> > > crosspiece
> > > so the spring can't cut through it again.  I folded a little piece of
> > > tin
> > > and poked a hole through both layers just below the plastic bar to
> > > hook the
> > > spring through when I did my 87.
> > >
> > > The big issue to replacing the air filter is getting the spring clips
> > > on
> > > the airbox open.  I took the heavy hook off a wooden pants hanger to
> > > use as
> > > a clip tool.  A screwdriver with the end heated/bent into a hook would
> > > work
> > > too.
> > >
> >
>
>