Thud in the parking lot

[quk@sievers.com (Phil Payne)]

In message <c=US%a=_%p=UTC%l=UTC/HSD/0003E421@hsex01nt.hsd.utc.com> "Rossato, Bob               HSD" writes:

> Keep in mind that Audi and presumably all other car manufactures have
> the big "liability" picture in mind.  While locking nuts or bolts can be
> reused to a minimal extent, the manufacturer has no way of controlling
> it because in this case they really aren't dealing with rocket
> scientists.  Most people (everyone on this list excluded of course)
> wouldn't even know what to do with a torque wrench, never mind knowing
> that a locking nut must provide some minimum level of running torque for
> it to do its job.  Therefore, it is to Audi's best interest to state
> that they should never be reused.

Yup.  Agree with all that.  I also have no way of knowing what previous owners 
have been doing, and I noticed on disassembly that some of the nuts were 
Loktited and had _very_ low running torques coming off.

This might also be the place to note that Audi have respecified some of the 
nuts on the ur-quattro, at least on mine.  Ordering 13mm nuts via the part 
number produces a nut with an integrated washer or skirt that should apparently 
be torqued to 30nm, not 20nm as the microfiche indicates.   

(Somewhere I have a copy of a letter sent by a Middle East airline to Rolls 
Royce in the mid-1960s.  "Your nuts didn't fit your bolts, so we reamed them 
out.")

--
 Phil Payne
 phil@sievers.com
 Committee Member, UK Audi [ur-]quattro Owners Club