Re: Soon to be proud owner of 80 q

["Ian J Haseltine" <jim_haseltine@email.msn.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Graham Thackrah <ggthack@swansea.ac.uk>

>It has had a recent clutch and mc
>replacement (heh heh)

This particular job holds no fears for me anymore - in fact, just to show
how blase I am (read overconfident or cocky) I took the clutch m/c out again
today because I havent been happy with the adjustment since I replaced it
last weekend. For those who are interested it took me just a bit over 3
hours this time (the advantages of having BTDT).
I tried to follow the instructions about clamping the two halves of the
steering column together - water pump (channel lock) pliers are no good,
there just isnt enough room and the warm air channel that passes under the
steering column gets in the way. Ditto mole grips or any other type of
self-locking pliers. I resorted to a small (2 inch) C-clamp which worked
fine. It looks to me as if the reason behind it is to get pressure on the
bearing that is half way up the lower part of the column and to insert the
column and the rack as far as possible into the flexible coupler.
Anyway, I had everything back together early this afternoon and then got
sidetracked, so I hadnt road tested it. Tonight I had to go out for a while,
started the car, tried to pull out of my driveway and found that the
steering would only move about 10 deg. either side of centre - then it
struck me that the C-clamp was still in place - see the overconfident bit
earlier.

>The owner has recently bought valve stem seals and he may
>chuck them in with the car (lucky me!!) as there is a bit of smoke on teh
>overrun.
Whooppee! Just the spare parts you need! :-) Seriously though, IMO, unless
there is loads and loads of smoke I wouldnt even think of fitting them until
you have a big job in mind for the cylinder head.


Jim Haseltine
88 Ur quattro