treehunter

Made the choice to resurrect my parts car finally

Black-Wolf

i might have to do this too.. have to check mine out.

RussB

The bolts that fasten the inner tie rod ends to the rack must pass through the rack boot and then into the rack. They're surprisingly difficult to start. I recommend that you buy a new thin sheet plate (whose corners you will peen over the bolts once everything's installed) and install the plate and start the bolts while the rack is outside the car. That way once you need to attach the inner tie rod ends to the rack you will have one of the two bolts in place, keeping everything in alignment.

2) Also just unbolt the Pentosin reservoir bracket from the firewall (three 13mm head bolts). The reservoirs often refuse to be removed from their brackets.

3) Take the opportunity to clean the reservoir and its filter with mineral spirits while its out of the car.

4) As you remove the hoses from the old rack, carefully note their positions relative to the rack. (Maybe a Polaroid or digital camera would help.) Duplicate their positions exactly with the new rack. You might have better luck with attaching the hoses to the rack before you get the new rack completely into position.

5) Remember to bleed the hydraulic system (wheels off ground, slowly turn steering from one extreme to the other) once everything's reassembled and Pentosin's topped up.

treehunter

Ah heck, how bad can it be, it's only an Audi right? lol.

RussB

There are only a few bolts involved in the job, and no air or special tools are needed.

Just allow plenty of time and it will go easier if you have a friend assist you:

- removing stuff that's in the way at the start of the job

- jiggle and wiggle the rack out the right wheelwell

- ditto, for positioning new rack.


One other point: I remove the entire rightside tie rod at both of its ends. And remove the rubber flaps from the rightside tierod hole in the wheelwell (maybe 6 clips). That lets me pass the rack through the hole with little trouble. It MAY be possible to do so without removing the tierod, but why make it difficult? Just be sure not to disturb the length of the tierod while it's out of car and alignment should be OK.

You may wanna have a stubby 13 mm combination wrench to help you bolt/unbolt rack ends.

RussB

Before installing the new rack, fit / unfit a couple times, maybe using Liquid Wrench to ease fit, the steering column coupling to the splined steering shaft on the rack. You wanna be certain that the two will mate with no problem, because once the rack's in the car you'll barely be able to see them and your back will protest because of the weird cramped position you're in. You wanna be certain that the coupling will slip easily on to the spline.

Also one of the last steps is to tighten the coupling on to the spline (12 mm wrench?) at driver footwell. Have a friend push down on the steering wheel, then release about 1/16 inch. Make certain that turn signal cancelling works afterward.

treehunter

Thanks for the info Russ, I'll be back soon enough to tell the tale of mid-winter repairs in the open air. Heh, at least frozen fingers bleed less.