[Vwdiesel] minor tragedies--A4 suspension work

[Arkady Mirvis]

. Familiar opinions!
When I was working in Vienna ( Austria ) , even the most experienced 
mechanics next to me, had decades of experience and best german training, 
considered VW cars as the nastiest, worst designed, absolutely unfriendly to 
work on them and maintain. The curses they cried and addressed to " German 
Engineering " were the worst in German language and could have been heard 
for kilometers in the hot air. On some day the reputable shop was a real 
madness and waiting customers could see thru the glass wall red faces full 
of mad expressions and mouthes profusely salivating. The shop Leiter ( we 
called him Fuerer ) could enter the work area and was careful avoiding 
flying wrenches and parts. His attempts to quell the mechanics working on VW 
were going nowhere.
Mechanic next to me in mad expression broke his arm hitting the Transporter 
wheel, when he couldn't take off the rear drive axle CV joint bolts.
In moments of silence people were grateful to VW AG for making bad cars 
which provided job security.
For Shalin: Christ suffered and told us to suffer.    Ark

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shalyn Shourds" <sshourds at flash.net>
To: <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2011 5:40 AM
Subject: [Vwdiesel] minor tragedies--A4 suspension work


> Yesterday, I started in on the TDI front end job.  First step was to
> remove the aluminum skid plate.  The front of the plate mounts up to
> these tubes bolted to the frame.  I was laying under one of those
> removing the bolt in the bottom of the tube when I noticed a few drops
> of water.  Then the bolt came out and I realized that the whole tube was
> full of nasty, brown/grey water.  It all went straight through my nose
> into my sinuses.
>
> I'll just leave it at saying that this is something you want to avoid.
>
> Sadly, this was not the most flustrated I've been on this project.  I'm
> trying to replace the ball joints, struts, complete rack, and control
> arm bushings.  I recently did this on my A2, but it didn't take me long
> working on my A4 Jetta to realize that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.  I
> did break down and order the special "spreader" socket for the clamp
> that goes around the strut.  I'll see more about that when it arrives.
> Just prying at it and beating the steering knuckle with a hammer wasn't
> getting me there.  And, since I'm basically nocturnal, I didn't figure
> my neighbors were thrilled about the banging and screamed unintelligible
> curses late into the night.
>
> On my A2, I just pulled the axle shaft from the hub and removed the
> whole works.  Am I correct in thinking that this one doesn't just pull
> off?  I keep seeing references to a special puller......  I couldn't get
> the nut loose anyways.  I had all 135lbs bouncing on my breaker bar and
> I didn't even get it to creak.
>
> I'd actually called a local shop about doing this job for me, I was
> dreading it so much.  Oddly, they never called me back.  I guess I know
> why--they didn't want to do it either.
>
>
>
> -Shalyn
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