weekend report; clutch repair and driving PDQShip

[tcandey@usr.com]

     Hi again fellow listers.
     I'd like to take a couple of minutes to share the weekend Scott J and 
     I had with the rest of you.
     It all started bright and early saturday morning when we left chi-town 
     headed for Keeler MI to Joe and Marks farm to do a clutch master and 
     slave in Marks 5ktq. First stop, JJ Peppers for the 20oz coffee, kind 
     of a must in my book. For those of you who are coffee drinkers, you 
     know what I mean, those of you who aren't..........
     Next stop, a local parts house to pick up the items needed to complete 
     said repair. Then back to Scott's for a forgotten tool. ( would later 
     prove to be well worth the trip)
     Now finally headed out of town, and enjoying the scenery of Lakeshore 
     drive (and it's pedestrians) we made our way out of the city and 
     settled into a nice pace. Seems as tho every police vehicle we saw  
     had a customer. All in all, a rather relaxing drive. At least from the 
     passenger seat.
     Arriving in MI, A quick stop at Burger King, bathroom, munchies, etc. 
     A quick check of tools indicated that we needed to make a stop at the 
     near by Sears to pick up a couple of items. Most interesting thing at 
     sears was probably the attractive middle thirties blonde woman who was 
     looking for a tool of her own. (we wished the sales clerk good luck 
     and went on our way).
     
     We arrive at Mark and Joe's and what do we see.... a house with an 
     attached garage. Hard to tell which was bigger BTW. But this was 
     definately the first house I'd ever seen with an alignment rack in the 
     garage. Sounds interesting you say, how about the ~1.5mile track in 
     the back yard?!? Looks like the perfect place to perform and test 
     suspension set-ups.
     
     On to the adventure. We get Mark's car up on the rack and proceed to 
     do the clutch master and slave. The only real pain was getting the 
     slave out of the trans housing. We got the pin out without too much 
     difficulty, but now it was time to get the slave itself out. We took 
     turns hammering on it and in the end a pickle fork and my newly 
     purchased BFH proved to be the winning combination.
     
     Replaced the master with little more than contortion and then gave the 
     whole system a complete bleed. This was where the forgotten tool (Blue 
     point bleeder) was to prove worthy of the trip back to Scott's house.
     
     Now that the car was finished it was time to check it out. And where 
     better than the backyard track.
     Before I get into that, let me tell you what I had been thinking 
     about. When I left my home in the morning, I told Kara that I should 
     be home mid afternoon. I told I her that I would be home on good time 
     as Albert Ng (fellow listmember) was driving up from Bloomington IN to 
     pick up some parts from my 5k. Well, early afternoon had come and gone 
     while working on the car so I gave her a call and told her of our 
     unexpected delay and that I should be home in a few hours to meet with 
     Albert. More on this later....
     
     Now on to the fun part. Mark took a few laps around the track with 
     Scott and I behind him. He appeared to be doing well, clutch job well 
     done. Mark moved off the track and scott picked up the pace. 
     Considerably. This is a very narrow track, <11ft., forces a driver to 
     be very precise, and scott was just that. It was amazing, I learned a 
     lot of respect for the man right then and there. It's one thing to 
     hear the stories, or even watch from the sidelines, but to ride in the 
     car and see the driver in motion, puts a lot of things in perspective 
     in a very short time. For those of you who don't know, he's very fast 
     and very fluid and very much in control.
     
     After several laps, it was time for a short cool down. We stopped, got 
     out and talked with Mark and Joe for a few minutes and then Scott 
     threw me for a loop. He said " wanna take it for a spin?" How 
     could I resist? The most competant Q I have ever seen, and the most 
     patient instructor one could ask for (although I had to ask twice for 
     him to go with me). I felt it was my duty as an audi enthusiast to 
     pilot this car around the track. Now, even though I've owned my 4ksq 
     since new, I've never had it on a track. And the limited track time I 
     have had has been in front engine rear drive cars. This was sure to 
     prove a learning experience. And it did. A few warm up laps and then 
     gradually pick up some speed. Scott reminding me of entry/exit points 
     and his constructive critisism got me going faster and faster.
     I perhaps gained a little too much confidance heading into the last 
     pair of corners before the longest straight. Now this is a slight 
     right bend followed by a sharp right turn in a very short distance.
     I went in a bit too hot and turned PDQShip into a lawn mower with her 
     owner in the passenger seat. Not only am I one of 3 people to ever 
     drive PDQ, I get to have the honor of being the only person to ever 
     laeve the track with her. Alas, it was only the 2 left tires and it 
     was not really a big deal, but Scott called it right on the money. As 
     we headed into the turn, he said to me, "you're off the track" and to 
     himself, what's he gonna do about it. Well, correct it best I can and 
     take nice cool lap around the track looking at all the lines once 
     again. After that, a few more hot laps, only got the car loose one 
     more time, sent the rear end wide through a pair of off camber turns, 
     gave it a gentle correction and accelerated on down the short 
     straight.
     
     Over all, I think I did pretty well and Scott, I thank you very much 
     for the ride and the instruction. I look forward to good beers with 
     you soon.
     
     Now, to use even more bandwidth, remember where I said there would be 
     more later about Albert coming to pick up parts?
     Well, I did in fact get home in time. It seems that his brother (who 
     drove his Subaru) hit something on the highway and ruptured the gas 
     tank. They then had it towed from the south side of chicago to 
     lincolnwood to a friends home.
     Now the tragic part: The towing company sent a regular truck instead 
     of a flatbed to haul fourwheel drive car. Bad enough, but then in 
     transit, the rt rear wheel fell off the towtruck sending the sub 
     crashing to the ground where sparks ignighted the ruptured gas tank.
     All in all, a pretty bad weekend for them. Albert and Alan, good luck 
     to you both, you'll need it.
     
     
     Once again, ScottJ, thanks it was a blast, and Mark and Joe, we 
     appreciate the hospitality.
     
     TOdd Candey.;