4kq Clutch/Tranny Question

[Timothy C Salazar II <tsal2@juno.com>]

Hey All!

My `85 4kq won't shift.  It all happened a few nights ago.  Just as I was
about to park to meet some friends, the car would no longer let me shift.
 The clutch went all the way to the floor with almost no effort and
wouldn't spring back into position.  Upon opening the hood I noticed a
wetness covering the transmission housing.  I'm guessing either the
clutch master or the slave cylinder (or their seals) went bad, dumping
all the hydraulic fluid onto the tranny.  I did notice a slight problem
with shifting several days before this happened, but I just thought I
needed to change out the tranny fluid, which I intended to do this
weekend.  Figures.  So here are my questions:

1.  Does this sound like a clutch master/slave cylinder problem?  The guy
I bought the car from experienced a similar problem, but had a shop in
L.A. fix it before he would sell it to me.  (I live in San Diego, so
there goes any chance of getting that shop to repair their work!)

2.  The shop I have my car at told me that the hydraulics, clutch and one
of the axles were bad.  They wanted to replace everything.  Fortunately
for me, I know the basics on cars, (Audi's in particular), and told him
to just fix the hydraulics.  The CV joint is going bad, but I know about
it and am going to handle it myself.  But could the low hydraulic fluid
take out my clutch?  It felt fine all the way up to the point it wouldn't
engage.  Clutches don't just give out all of a sudden in quattro's, do
they?  

3.  Is the clutch master/slave cylinder on a `85 4kq found only on
Audi's, or does it match up to any existing VW's?  Excluding the Passat's
of the time, of course.  (Duh!)  This same mechanic told me the part
wasn't availible in San Diego, and had to special order it.  I'm kind of
wondering about that.

4.  How much is a clutch cylinder?  I could have sworn they cost around
$60 or so.  This guy was quoting me around $100.  Normally I wouldn't be
too skepical with this, but something just didn't sit with me right when
he said this.  Any ideas?

This mechanic may or may not be shady, as I haven't dealt with him
face-to-face, but I'm handling him as if he is.  I didn't have much
choice in transmission shops, as it was 2:00 in the morning and my car
lost facilities over 30 miles from my regular, trusted Audi technician. 
Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated.  This
wouldn't be too much of an inconvience to me except I just started a new
job this week, and my main mode of transportation to work and back is on
the fritz.  Plus I don't have a dime to my name, and I won't for another
two weeks!  Thanks for all the help!  

Love, Like, or Just Plain Tolerate,

Timothy

`85 4kq
`82 & `86 CGT (R.I.P.)