more advise sought (shut up Dave! <g>)

[DWeil2 <DWeil2@aol.com>]

Another in the continuing saga.  (Gee, isn't it a blast getting to know your
Audi? ;) )

Thanks to some listers I ordered the hose mount under the ISV from Linda (pn
034103247E).  While I'm waiting for it, I took it off, cleaned it out, and
electrical-taped it up tight as a drum.  It had several cracks you could drive
four rings through.  At the same time, I did the simple check for the ISV (it
works.)  

At that time I noticed a disconnected second throttle linkage (any ideas?)
parallel to the main linkage.  There doesn't appear to be *anything* even
close to attach it to (it's shorter than the main one.)  Being inquisitive, I
manually activated the main throttle a couple of times to make sure that it
wasn't binding or anything.  The varoom varoom!! was sure fun for this 43 year
old adolescent.

When I got the car on the road, suddenly the accelerator pedal was rock-hard.
Not always, but especially when the transmission was straining to shift.  I
didn't disconnect anything, or change any adjustments.  Coincidence?  (I did
notice that the bushing on the right side connector seemed to be a little
cracked and there seemed to be a little up and down play.)

Also, I noticed the RPM idle level back down to around 800 (it's been idling
at 1000 much of the time, which I assumed was due to the vacuum leak screwing
up the adjustments that my mechanic made when I first bought the car.)
However, it started wavering up and down after it was warmed up.  I'm
wondering if the ECU is doing it's adjusting thing now that a major vacuum
leak has been sealed.  I've also noticed that the transmission seems more
consistant in its shifting and it hasn't dropped out of gear since the
replacement.  Its shift points are still too high and not crisp but I'm
wondering if this is also a function of the ECU adapting to the transmission
fluid level being consistant (not leaking a quart every other day.)  What I
mean is that I know that the ECU doesn't monitor that, but that the varying
performance of the transmission as it loses fluid might confuse the ECU.

This got me thinking that perhaps the shift problem is more related to the
throttle linkage than the transmission itself.  Any comments?  (at least the
thing seems to be staying in gear...unfortunately sometimes *that's* the
problem, *staying* in gear <g>)  Are the directions for adjusting the linkage
in the Haynes pretty much straightforward or are there any little tricks?
(anyone else think that the Haynes is relatively incomplete? ... unfortunately
Mr. Bentley is a little too rich for my blood at the moment.)

Once again, we're talking plain-jane '87 5KS.

I want to thank everyone for their help and patience.  Now I just need to get
the thing through emissions, but the guy who tuned it up originally is going
to re-calibrate it (I think that my idle was too high that day.)  I'm waiting
to get the new connector hose on.

And yes, I now have a pentosin leak somewhere, which means that at least
there's a chance that the bomb itself is OK.

d(will be glad when I get some of these niggling problems behind me <as
if!>)weil