[s-cars] Welcome back, Igor!

[Igor Kessel]

Rob Pecsar wrote:

 > Welcome back, Igor.
 >
 > I am switching over to Eibach/Bilstein setup(I've read every thread) and
 > found your modification drawings and detailed instructions; you're a
 > life saver for putting the job into perspective. A very big THANKS!
 >
 > There is a machinist at my work who is a gear head in his off hours, so
 > he doesn't mind making/moding my Audi bits. My thought was to fab new
 > camber plates, prior to pulling my struts off my car and going through
 > disassembly. Do you know the other dimensions and material thickness of
 > the camber plates. I'd really your insight.
 >
 > Thanks and welcome back,
 >
 > Rob Pecsar
 > 95 S6
 > 92 S4, totaled :(

Thanks, Bob.

Speaking of the devil. Last night Stefan and I have done yet one more
(my 3rd) Eibach/Bilstein modification. This time around it was Stefan's
new toy - the Silver Avant.

The installation was uneventful, that including re-drilling the Camber
Plates to the 4mm offset to compensate for the negative Camber. Well, I
shold say *almost uneventful*.

At one point the spring compressor that we used (and busted to sh!t in
the process) managed to creep to one side of the spring and compress the
spring into a curve. We decided not to reposition the compressor, but
instead used lots of persuasion, and our own weight on the caliper and
wiggled the spring out from the strut perch. At some point the strut was
almost completely out from under the fender.

After the suspension was back in the car, we decided to take the car out
for a test drive, before indulging ourselves in the well deserved
vodka-martinis. Stefan put the car in reverse, let off the clutch, the
car shook slightly and said "wzzzzz...." w/o moving an inch. WTF?
It did not take long to realise that the front axle must have jumped out
the CV joint after being subjected to such a twisting abuse. We dropped
the wheel and turned the steering wheel to the side. Stefan removed the
outer clamp from the CV boot and a greasy ball fell out. At which point
I remember murmuring: "why don't you stop f%cking with the poor thing
before you balls fall out completely". Jimmy, please behave :)
It had become painfully clear that the halfshaft and the CV Joint had to
come out. Oh well. We called it a day and proceeded to drinking anyway,
although we didn't quite finish the job thus didn't quite deserve it. :)
Stefan took Elen's A4 home. Since my good friend Leonid has left for
France and asked me to house sit his house with the attached garage in
which his 528i and his wife's RX300 sat, I felt confident that I would
manage to get by if the need arose.

First thing in the morning I pulled the halfshaft out. Lo and behold,
that was exactly what happened. I inserted the ball which had fallen out
the day before back into the racer and *gently* (insert is a LOL smiley
here)  persuaded the cocked to hell inner racer with a BFH High
Precision Tool over a wooden block. A couple of splines on the halfshaft
were messed up because we tried to start the car with the halfshaft not
sitting inside the CV joint, but they were easy to repair with a
triangular file.

As they say, the assembly was a reverse of removal. The car is once
again in one piece and drives nicely.

Kids, please do exercise caution, don't cut corners, and don't jump on
that strut if the spring compressor is not quite doing its job. We got
lucky coz the front diff in our cars is an open diff. The car simply
didn't move with the halfshaft out of the CV joint. If it were an EVO or
a WRX, Stefan would've lost his brand spanking new 6-speed tranny.

--
Igor Kessel
two turbo quattros