Fwd: TQ rumble

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <970926020923_-161869977@emout10.mail.aol.com> DGenetti@aol.com writes:

> In your reply to the message below you wrote about a greese nipple on the
> universal joint of a quattro propeller shaft.  On my 4000 CSQ this nipple
> look impossible to get to the way it is assembled.  It looks as if the angle
> of the nipple would line up with the gap between the two shaft halfs if the
> joint was rotated 90 degrees.  Have you seen this before?  Can the nipple be
> rotated?  Can you make your own shaft alignment tool?  This joint is a pricey
> part and I wouldn't want to let it die early because I couldn't greese it.  I
> got the car used so there is no telling what may have been done to it in the
> past.

Greasing the propellor shaft nipple is _NOT_ listed in the service 
instructions.  However, in the discussion of removing and replacing the shaft, 
there _IS_ an instruction that the nipple should be greased every 30,000km.
 
I have a feeling that very few dealerships know this.  Most of the quattros I 
look at are as dry as a Kookaburra's Khyber.  Perhaps I'm lucky in that the 
grease nipple on my universal joint is perfectly lined up to take a simple ex-
Army push-type grease gun.

Regarding alignment tools - I think you just need something as straight as 
possible.  Four supports, two for each stub.  I know BR Motorsport have the 
Audi tool, but I've never seen one anywhere else.  I suspect that care in 
removal (scribing the ends, saving the shims) is the key - and that someone has 
simply lost one of your shims.  

--
 Phil Payne
 Committee Member, UK Audi [ur-]quattro Owners Club