1997 Audi A8Quattro in limp mode

[Cody Forbes]

Been there, researched that. The transmission is no big deal, an 01E 6spd from a B5 bolts right in. Actually, Audi bell housing bolt patterns are consistent for all transmissions designed for 5 or more cylinder engines so there a large number of options. The trans mounts have to be fabricated no matter what, but that's trivial.

The largest problem is the flywheel and the clutch pedal and hydraulics. There is no flywheel with the 4.2's bolt pattern in the US, period. You have to import one or make one. I've seen 2.7t flywheels modified to work by machining slugs to fit in the non-matching bolt holes (at least one hole lines up, forget how many), TIGing them in, then drilling the correct pattern. Sketchy, but I've seen it work on a race car that gets used hard. I've considering calling Spec or such and seeing if they can sell me a 2.7t flywheel (already in their catalog) but either drill the 4.2 bolt pattern or send me the flywheel with the center undrilled. 

The clutch pedal and master cylinder are import items, or fabricate your own... Period. The pedal cluster and firewall have mounting provisions.

The shifter can be made from B5 parts, but you have to have a custom boot or import the center console parts.

Front axles for use with the 01E are urS4 parts. 

Driveshaft has to be shortened, only a little over a hundred bucks at a good driveshaft shop.

Rear diff is B5 S4 to match the final drive ratio of the 01E transmission. I considered welding the Torsen solid and running RWD only with the A8 rear diff, but the final drive ratio is VERY tall. Better highway mileage maybe, but certainly no passing would be possible without downshifting.

Speedometer is tricky. Some have fabricated a bracket to mount the 5hp24 speedo sensor and trigger ring to the 01E driveshaft flange. Other have just used a GPS.

Instrument cluster will always show the PRND321 in "fault" mode, oh well.

There was one other tricky but I forget, but still the biggest single issue is clutch hydraulics and pedal followed by the flywheel. After that all you need is $1500-2000 worth of axles and transmission. 

There's a guy known as Tozo / tozomate on a few of the forums that is king for this, he's built 5-10 6spd A8's. He stopped due to time constraints. He doesn't exactly freely share his info, but you can piece 95% of it together through various threads.

-Cody Forbes (mobile)

> On May 23, 2015, at 11:37 PM, Nicholas Miller <chance9121 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> There is a certain 5-speed that is supposed to bolt up, I believe from the A4,  that would be the easiest, most economical swap.  6-speed swap is a bit of work, sourcing german parts, etc.
> 
>> On Sun, May 24, 2015 at 6:31 AM, Vincent Gelinas <vrgelinas at gmail.com> wrote:
>> If I had the money and was in the right location, I'd take it and save the money for a manual swap! I've seen it done... Not sure how crazy of a swap it is. I think they did it at that place where they make heavy duty A8 torque converters and upgraded transmissions. The name escapes me.
>> 
>> V
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> > On May 23, 2015, at 23:24, Nicholas Miller <chance9121 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Wish it was in my neck of the woods.  I haven't felt masochistic in a
>> > while.   The poor A8's do really have a crutch in that 5hp24 transmission,
>> > and the 1st gear clutch basket failing.  Beautiful cars, though
>> >
>> >
>> > Cheers,
>> >
>> > Nick
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