team illuminata

OK, so a few weeks turned into a few months. It happens. Would really like to drive it this summer so cracking on. Today replacing the prop shaft seal.








Once this is back together this is all that's left on my list:

15 Rear trans seal
16 Refurb power steering system
17 Refurb CIS
18 Clean engine bay
19 Replace brake line
20 Refurb strut tops
21 Fix down pipe
22 Install waste gate
23 Trans oil
24 Attach subframe
25 Install engine, trans, sub frame
26 Reconnect ancillaries
27 Fire up
28 Test drive
29 alignment

Piece of cake.

team illuminata

Replacing the diff lock actuator today I managed to brake the clip that attaches it to the actuator rod. NLA but ECS say they have one. We will see.

team illuminata

I'm thinking the next phase should be to refurbish the hydraulic system before I pt the engine back in. It powers the steering and brakes and seems to be wet in its entirety. What is typically replaced. Should I refurbish the steering rack too?

team illuminata

I was going to replace the rear brake line yesterday then this happened.






So I said F-it and went to the track instead. I did come back later and straightened my spool of exotic Audi brake line.




Need to make it look like this somehow:










I guess i'm going to need some new tools; and a new tool box.

team illuminata

Heavily invested in brake line tools now. Worked though. I just need some more brake projects to justify the investment.




I started at the master cylinder end and taped the new line to the old line as I went. The flare went well but I couldn't get the first bend as close to the fitting as the factory but it looks OE enough in my opinion.




I'm glad I replaced the rear brake line as it fell apart after it saw it's replacement and cried tears of brake fluid.




To my surprise it actually fir very well. I mean, it should right considering it was virtually a copy of the original. Things like this generally do not go this well for me though. I had to replace a few clips with new unfortunately.




Me bleedin' bleed nipples are bleedin' rusted to buggery in the rear and as I replaced the rear brake line I now have to bleed the buggers! #URQuattroFun






Later; I need a break from brakes. Next up: Transmission linkage stabilizer which is NLA, of course and then the hydraulic system.

team illuminata

Time to address the shift link stabilizer. Number 35 in this diagram. The plastic sockets on the ends wear and it is NLA (No Longer Available).




Mines a little loose so let's build a new one.








Now it's NPA (NO Problem Anymore)

team illuminata

Decided to take out the steering rack, hydraulic pump, accumalator and reservoir en masse. Seems as if every bit of it is leaking.


Steering rack










At brake master cylinder




Et voila!




Now what?

team illuminata

My apologies, it's been a while since I have updated this thread and that's because it's been a while since I worked on the car. My wife's A3 booted the Quattro off the hoist a while back and I've since been too busy with the parts business to get it back on. Well that change this weekend when I found the hoist vacant along with my schedule. So on it went, again.




I am waiting for a friend to figure out how to replace the hydraulic hoses while using the original fittings so I thought I'd tackle bleeding the brakes which, of course required freeing up the rusted bleed nipples in the calipers. Well I only broke two off, left front and left rear!




How do I fix these? I imagine it involves removing the calipers which I managed quite easily on the left front but the left rear is fighting me. I managed to unhook the handbrake cable from the lever but the outer sheath looks like it's fused to the caliper in it's seat.






I'm also struggling to get the brake union on the inner fender separated.




I left them soaking in PB Blaster overnight. Think that will work?

team illuminata

More progress but nothing picture worthy, sorry. I managed to free up both the handbrake cable and the brake line union yesterday but was less successful with the brake calipers. Unless you count that I was able to remove the rear caliper and place it on the bench that is.

So I cut a slit in the front caliper's bleed screw, or at least what was left of it. The stub was protruding about 4mm so there was quite a bit to work with. I had hit it with PB Blaster again when I got there so that had had an hour to soak in. I heated it as much as I could with a propane torch then with CFC Freeze Off and then heated again. I then hit it with my impact screwdriver and guess what? No, it didn't come right out; it broke right off flush with the caliper

Needless to say I didn't move on to the rear caliper.

So what's next, drilling it out and re-tapping, reverse drilling? New car?

team illuminata

I found a few hours to work on the car today. I basically pulled off more parts. Gotta start installing parts.

Tried EasyOut on one of the seized bleeders. FAIL




So turned my attention to the CIS injection system because you can never have enough parts on the floor.












Then started thinking about getting the downpipe welded back together. If you remember it separated after the engine stand let go and allowed the engine to rotate! This meant reassembling everything on the engine so I could mark the orientation which might be important.