[urq] another clunk....

[Justin]

Just as an incentive to double check the ball joint bolt...here is what can
happen:  UGLY !!!  (from Mark  Swanson's site)
http://www.mswanson.com/images/?mode=view&album=Audi%2F4ktq%2Fcursed_road_tr
ip_7_19_03&pic=img_0107.jpg&dispsize=640&start=0


Justin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Payne" <quattro at isham-research.com>
To: <urq at audifans.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: [urq] another clunk....


> > Also, double check that the ball joint is inserted all the way into the
> > bottom of the strut housing...(don't make the mistake that I did, by
> > tightening the ball joint bolt with the ball joint not all the way
in....IT
> > WAS UGLY... :). ) It's easy to make this mistake, cause the ball joint
bolt
> > must slide past the groove in the ball joint, and it's possible to have
the
> > ball joint inserted in the strut housing with the bolt not flush with
this
> > groove. (This will make sense if you look at it for awhile...)
>
> Then one day you wind up looking at a car that's "all wrong" from the
front perspective.
> Shoot - also from the side - case study 2 below.
>
> You post the car up, and take a look underneath.  Usual tools -
copper-headed hammer and large
> pry bar.  They tell me they make screws big enough to fit the end of my
pry bar.  And you poke
> at the front right ball joint, 'cos it don't "look right" - and POP!
>
> Sucker's never been secure.  The car's done at least 25k miles with the
ball joint just jammed
> up against the "securing" bolt.
>
> Then there was the time I visited a fellow Audi mechanic to take him for a
beer. He was
> finishing up after a job, and out of sheer boredom I started sweeping the
shop.  I found a
> bolt on the floor with a nut on it - a typical mechanic's trick to remind
him of which nut
> belongs to which bolt.  I casually mentioned that it looked like a ball
joint locking bolt.
>
> Only dust, as he roared away after the customer.  I drank alone.
>
> Case study 2:
>
> An Audi 200 (5000) with "tyre rubbing" on some corners.  Dumb as
ditchwater as I am, I lay
> under the car for over half an hour before I spotted it - a right-side
track control arm
> fitted on the left.
>
> --
>   Phil Payne
>   http://www.isham-research.com
>   +44 7785 302 803
>
>
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