[V8] Chasing a unicorn/Koni shocks question

Sun Apr 23 23:17:07 PDT 2017

Hey Tom and everyone...

Just one tweak to the story, maybe I didn't explain it right.  The black V8
you saw wasn't yours, that was owned by the guy that bought mine, he picked
mine up because of the accident.

So to start that story from the beginning, I got Toms car in a swap like he
mentioned a few years back.  Great car, 200k-ish on the clock, but had a
replaced dash, so read around 150k on the odo.  More miles than my Lago,
 but in better condition.  Was perfect until the trans decided every gear
was neutral last summer...  I'll get back to that.  Anyway, it sat for
months waiting for me to have time/money to dig into it, decided to sell it
last December.

Buyer was a 20something kid who grew up in an audi family.  Dad bought a
used 91 black car, and was 2nd owner, had it for many years as his daily
driver.  A few years back, kid is working as a tech in and audi dealer, and
dad buys an S8, and gives the kid the V8.  Only 80k on the clock. He
decides to restore the car, redoes all the suspension components, goes over
the whole car mechanically, and sources a beautiful two tone black and tan
interior for it, new headliner, new lenses for all the lights, the works.
Day he picks up the car after its last major work, at a friend's shop in
Chehalis, it's finally 'done'.  He's driving the 2 hours back to Seattle,
and has a lady cut him off on the highway and puts him into the left
concrete barrier, smashes the nose and rear spinning out.

Enter my/Toms car, same color, straight body, good interior.  He buys my
car with the intention of swapping the interior and drive train and is
still working on that now.  He stripped his old car, which is what I think
Tom found this weekend.  "Our" car will be back on the road again, maybe by
summer?  Dad said he'd get pics of the complete car to me when kid is
finished.

I did just hear back from them last week about my trans, he pulled it apart
to see if it was repairable, seems one of the solenoids/valves completely
disintegrated and damaged the valve body causing a pressure leak in the
system, explains why it didn't like anything but neutral....  so had I kept
the car, it would have needed a new trans.

- John
V8-less for now...  might hunt for another in a year?  :)

On Apr 23, 2017 9:26 PM, "toml99 at todomundo.com" <toml99 at todomundo.com>
wrote:

> Well James from the list got a notice that there was a 5-speed in a
> pick-n-pull junkyard in Lynnwood(seattle area).   I called this morning and
> they confirmed that the computer showed a silver/grey '91 5-speed and the
> note was 5 days old.  Throwing my vows of no more V8 anything out the
> window, I decided to go have a looksie as the boss who had the ability to
> sell the whole car wasn't in till tomorrow.  I was envisioning a mint body
> car that ate belt/rack/whatever that caused it to get donated/failed to
> sell at Copart auction where most of their cars come from.  To horde it I
> intended to buy ECU/UFO'S/maybe shift linkage to give me time to chat with
> boss about whole car.  What I found out(no guarantees of accuracy), that if
> a car doesn't sell at a Copart auction, Pick-N-Pull gets vehicle for
> $100......I was thinking $400-$600 might sound enticing to a pick/pull
> place for a 26 yo car in 5 days.  I intended to buy ECU/UFO's/maybe shifter
> to deter anyone else for the day.
> Radar didn't look good as a healthy storm cell full of rain was imminent
> and the normal 1.2hr drive was hindered by torrential rain/absurd traffic
> because the world famous Skagit valley tulips were in full bloom and
> apparently this sunday was peak tulip bloom and the drive took 2.5
> hrs(about as bad as it gets).
> Anyway get there and you have to pay $2 to enter(supposedly for
> environmental fund that's gonna need more like $200/person.).  Went to
> where it was supposed to be and theres a '91 Panther black auto that hit
> something good and had no good parts left(except for the newish looking
> coolant tank that James noticed in pic).....It was raining and the unicorn
> wasn't there so didn't even look at the car barely.  I was irritated and
> driving away, and thought....hmmm 91 Panther Black, so I checked in with
> John Bysinger(list) who I horse traded the black car to him for money and
> his Indigo Pearl car that is sitting on my 5-speed.  He verified that is in
> fact THE black car I got from old lady that had throttle stick and kid that
> bought car from him totalled it quickly and took the good stuff and gave it
> to pick/pull.  Weird end to a weird day.
>
> On a different note James was up my way and lay'd on me a set of Koni
> adjustable front shocks.  I read thru the adjustment procedure and PO had
> written 360/1 turn, which I take to mean he had it on stop #2 from soft(out
> of 5).  Who's got Koni's and where are you at?  Seems like you really need
> to remove shock to adjust, so would go with that, but wanted input if
> theres any as I'd like to do it once.  These are going on my 5-speed.  Not
> going in anytime soon.
>
> On a totally different note, but car related.  2004 Duramax truck has 2
> injectors that are "bad", but weren't bad enough for warranty(gone).
> Mileage has been down for years(hwy21/17), from when I got it and was more
> like hwy 24/19.  Anyway last week turbo didnt boost and huge cloud of
> black.  Fearing the inevitable injector failure as they've come down to
> $2700 for 8(from $3850), but book time is like 20 hrs or something crazy
> and it will be me, so tax day/truck issue..not good.  Being a work truck,
> the fuel filter that I try and change yearly/every other oil change only
> had 8K, but almost 2 yrs, so got new filter and noticed turbo hose had
> popped off.  Not totally sure exactly when I totally removed that hose(hard
> but not impossible to do filter with hose in way), but I'm guessing I never
> torqued the lower band years ago and it's been leaking and finally popped
> off.  Tightened it/did filter last week and today in 160 mile RT with
> diesel at $2.55 logged 24.5 MPG!  Saved money not driving Lago....Ha.
> Anyway, it was a good day all in all, don't have the queasy feeling that I
> might have if there was a junkyard 5-speed sitting in my yard needing
> whatever.  Tom
> _______________________________________________
> Audifans V8 mailing list
> Send posts to: mailto:V8 at audifans.com
> Manage your list connection: http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/v8
>
> You can help keep the audifans site running by shopping at
> http://audifans.com/shop/
>
>