[V8] V8 ramblings -- free strut?

[Roger Woodbury]

Well, I finally got time to attend to the front struts on the V8 this
afternoon.  I changed both sides and am pleased to report that it was so
easy a caveman could do it.

Tomorrow I will loosen the right side and try to frig around with that one
because my steering wheel is off center and I am quite sure that it is
because I had quite a bit of struggle getting the right strut in place and
bolted down.  

Test drive was GRRReat! The V8 has sat in the garage most of the
summer....since my last trip to Portland in mid June as a matter of fact.
The registration has expired so next week I will probably go to town hall
and fork over the dough to get the thing legal.  

I discovered that someone had been in there ahead of me.  The left strut
came out very, very easily.  I was a bit surprised that it did, but I
actually had to reach down into the tube and pull the strut up in order to
pull the entire unit out.

The right side was a different story, and when I got it out I discovered
why.  The left side strut was gray in color and loose as a goose.  There was
no resistance to pulling the rod up or pushing it down...totally spent.  I
would guess that it was the original left strut from new.

Now, the right side was totally different.  The strut rod was up and out,
and I had to work HARD to compress it enough to pull out the strut entirely.
Once out I could barely push the rod in...AND it was black much like the
Sachs struts that I just put in.  I suspect that it might have been put in
by the used car joint that sold me the car in Pittsburg.  Typical cheap
Charlie used car joint trick.

Anyway, I have one really good used strut if anyone wants it.  I can put it
into one of the boxes that the new struts came in and send it out.
Free...just pay postage.  It is good enough to use with one new one, and if
I hadn't bought both new ones I would have reused it.

If no one wants it, it will go to the metal pile at the landfill with the
other pile of old outboard junk that I can't get rid of.

I also noticed when I took the car out  that my idle wants to stay up around
1000 rpm.  This is new, and even kicking the throttle when the engine is
warm doesn't really drip the idle back to where it should be...only goes
down to around 850 or so.  I suspect that this is the Audi Gods warning me
to drive the car and not let is sit.  

I pulled off the aircleaner and found the usual beginnings of a mouse or
squirrel nest...some one of two partial acorn shells and some cuzzerai,
which I emptied out and shook out the aircleaner that was dirtier than I
thought it should be at only 15,000 miles since all that stuff was renewed.

Just as with my dear departed '87 928S4, I fear the mice will get into the
air cleaner no matter what I do, unless I invent something cool.  I think I
will get some 1/4" screening and make screens to go across the opening of
the air cleaner or perhaps down low where the air enters the pipes leading
into the air cleaner.  

When the mice got into the 928, they knawed through a little air tube that
caused the engine to run roughly.  It was just under $500 to get it all
fixed.  Around $18 bucks for the little hosey thing, and $480 something to
remove plastic shrouding on top of the engine and remove the intake manifold
and all assorted stuff that Porsche crammed in there. That was one major
reason I sold that car. I figured if I couldn't drive it enough to keep the
field mice from finding it in a locked garage, I shouldn't have it.

We have three Maine Coon Cats in this house.  Kathryn is the grand dame of
the household who now has some serious health issues.  Pablo Picatso is the
poet in the house, at 15+ and around 15 pounds he isn't much into moving
around too much. Then there is Brindle who adopted us one cold and stormy
night three years ago.  He is around 20 pounds and very active.  He doesn't
really want other cats to be in the house, is totally intimidated by 12
pound Kathryn, and likes to try to jump Pablo, who basically doesn't give a
you-know-what about territory anymore.  Anyway, we call Brindle "The Thug"
because he tries to harass the other cats....

You'd think with that platoon of fearless felines we would have NO mouse
problems.  Wrong!  Brindle will run around and catch a mouse every once in a
while, and then sit down in the shade waiting for a fat mousing contract to
come his way, resting on his laurels.  

Pablo doesn't much care.  Food is what is regularly put in his dish, and
other than that, the most important thing in the world is sleeping until he
can go sit and watch the sunset.

Kathryn fantasized about catching one of the big gray squirrels that my wife
insists on feeding.

Meanwhile, Brindle is sitting waiting for applause because of his bit kill,
and three platoons of field mice file past looking for an opportunity to
knaw the intake or emissions hoses in the V8.

It's all enough to make a cat laugh.

Roger