Driveshaft splines, nut torques, brakes & clunks

[Paul.Heneghan@bbc.co.uk]

After reassembling the front suspension of my 1983 Audi 100 Avant, I 
noticed that the Haynes manual said "put a 6mm band of locking compound 
on the end of the splines".  I have not done this and have never done 
it on the 20 or so VW/Audi drive shafts that I have reassembled in the 
last few years.

Is it important?  Why is it necessary, I wouldn't have thought the 
splines could have moved in the hub once the driveshaft nut was tightened?

The manual suggests 280Nm torque for the driveshaft nut.  My torque 
meter only goes up to 200Nm.  How important is it to get the torque 
exactly right?

BTW, I installed a new bomb - I got 39 power assisted presses today 
without the engine running!

I also rebuilt the parking brake mechanism (pbm) - my calipers have a 
removable pbm.  There was a 1mm thick band of rust/muck at the top of 
the actuating shaft where it goes into the pbm.  I scraped this off, 
regreased everything, reassembled and had a working pbm again.  BTW, 
both times I have dismantled the pbm, one of the three bolts (the one 
holding the spring) has sheared its head.

I also replaced the front discs - does anyone else find that they need 
to replace the discs quite often (usually long before the minimum 
thickness is reached) to cure jerky braking?

I am getting clunks from the front suspension when on full lock.  I had 
hoped that this would go away when I replaced the front bearings - it 
didn't.  I couldn't feel any play in the outer CV joints when I had 
everything dismantled.

Can you feel play in a worn CV joint?
Is it possible that the inner CV joint is at fault?

Sorry for so many question - thanks for reading.

Paul