The Project Pad

Hey thanks for the input on the diff mount! I just ordered the powerflex one, we'll see how that works out. I have poly control arm and sway bar bushings on my Saab and it's a PITA always having to re-lubricate them, but this one doesn't move around much so maybe it'll be happier.

And on the spring noise thing... IT'S FIXED!! :woowoo: I've been trying for months to track down this noise, but last night I put tie-wraps on the rear springs (having previously done the fronts as described above) and this morning I took the car over some of my friendly local bumpy roads and there was zero noise. And the fix was cheap and relatively easy (although the upper coils are pretty hard to get to in the rear). Now we'll just have to see how long it lasts... I'm pretty sure tie-wraps aren't designed for this purpose.

On the diff mount just use the copper anti-seize it comes with and it will be fine the one on my 90q doesn't make any noise.
Where did you order it from? I got mine straight from the powerflexusa site. They also come in two varieties now street and race.

yodasfro wrote:Where did you order it from? I got mine straight from the powerflexusa site. They also come in two varieties now street and race.

Same here! There don't seem to be many other choices. I got the street one.

I also had to grind my housing a lot to get the 034 mount to fit. I used a small drum sander on a drill. A ridiculous way of doing things. I would use anything but the 034 mount. I discovered the Powerflex after my imperfect choice was made.

So the weirdest thing has been happening with my car lately... as I drive it, the numbers on the odometer keep changing! That's something I'm not accustomed to.

Quite a while ago the odo quit working and I figured it was the gears inside. Took it apart and sure enough, the pod gear and the little gear that sits on it were each missing a tooth.

So being the cheap person I am, I pulled apart another odo I had sitting around and did a gear transplant. Put it all back together and it worked! And then it didn't. And then it did. And eventually it pretty much always didn't.

So I called myself a dummy a few times for installing used gears, dropped $50 for $1 worth of plastic at that online gear place, and got some new ones. Put 'em in, bench-tested the speedo/odo, all was good. Put it back in the car and... it didn't work. Over the course of driving the next maybe 100 miles, the odometer registered a little over a mile.

Last weekend I pulled it all apart again and to make a long story short, the problem was NOT mechanical. It was solder joints! I touched-up quite a few solder joints (on the PC board that's in the speedo, not the instrument cluster one) but I'm 99% sure the issue was on the stepper motor. A couple of those joints looked very "iffy". Anyhow, since then it's actually been working... yay! :-)

So the moral of the story is, if you're taking the thing apart of course check the gears, but take a look at the solder joints too. You may save yourself a lot of grief.

Very good info there. I need to pull mine apart and do the same thing. All have to look over the boards while im in there.

Also blow the gears on the odometer out with air any small pieces of the old gear stuck in there will prevent it from turning BTDT on my urs4. You can get the gears on ebay for less than $20 ea. But a being cheapskate I swapped a used one into my 90q and it's still working . Just don't reset the odo. when moving. :wink:

Yeah I did that after I replaced the gears and it still didn't work. Figured it was crud in the teeth but they were pretty clean.

I'm bummin' on the $20 ebay thing... it seems there are different tooth counts on the gears and mine are not the common ones that are available on ebay. Funny thing is, I bought a used cluster from DE80q and that one had the same teeth as mine!

Then again, compared to the cost of a speedo or whole cluster, $50 is cheap. At least that's what I keep telling myself...

15 tooth gear on ebay for $8.95 BIN w/ free shipping. The only odd gear is for the 5000.

The little gear yes, but it's the pod that's weird. Seems like everyone on ebay is selling 12-tooth ones, mine is 16. And I wanted to get both from the same source to ensure there wouldn't be any fit issues between the two. Probably a little too paranoid, but at least now I have something that works.

Ah I see I've never seen the pod gear go bad though.

I bought the expensive ones made of Delrin from http://www.speedometergears.com/ I installed them in both 80s because I only wanted to do it once. Here's where I got my info. http://audi.humanspeakers.com/odometer.htm Both odos have been trouble free.

Okay, so today I have two completely unrelated questions...

First: seats. The driver's seat in this car is getting kind of worn, and is suffering from the same issue the one in my 4kq had and it's annoying me. The issue is that there's a metal "wire" part inside the seat bottom, at the outer edge. Presumably that's supposed to have some padding over it, but it's worn out, making it very uncomfortable whenever I put any weight on it, like when I'm getting in and out of the car.

So my question is, is there any specific fix for that problem? Would replacing the seat padding do it? The piece seems to still be available, although at $180 it's not cheap.

Or is there a seat from a newer car that could be put in there as a better option? These are not power seats, BTW.

My other question is completely different. For those who have put Volvo K24 turbos in B3 cars, what did you use for an elbow on the turbo inlet? I bought a 3" cobra-head elbow but even that seems like it's going to stick so far forward that it'll interfere with the core-support upright and the headlight.

I have a set of grey leather seats in very nice shape. Road trip?

Eric, if you come down to see Randy, I want to be there!

Hmmm... that's tempting, although I do prefer cloth. Less tendency for my fat arse to slide around in the corners!

How much do you want for them?

DE80q wrote:Eric, if you come down to see Randy, I want to be there!

Kewl!

Although if I did make the trip, it would have to be with my Saab. I couldn't even fit one seat into the glove-compartment-sized trunk on the 80.

elaw wrote:

DE80q wrote:Eric, if you come down to see Randy, I want to be there!

Kewl!

Although if I did make the trip, it would have to be with my Saab. I couldn't even fit one seat into the glove-compartment-sized trunk on the 80.

Swapping seats in a typ 89 is a 10 minute affair! Get to PA, pull out the old seats, toss in closest dumpster, install new seats, done!

Well maybe a little more than that in my case. I just got done replacing all the little plastic guide pieces so for the first time since I've owned the car the seats are tight in the tracks and adjust easily. I'd want to swap them over to the new seats, unless the pieces on the new seats are in pristine condition.

For some strange reason that didn't fix the issue with the cushion though!

You can probably transfer all those bits onto these seats. They are in real good shape, sport seats I think. The foam is cut on the back side so you sit a little lower. Had them in my B3turbo, the second owner crashed it and I bought it back to give life to other projects. Parts of the car are in projects all over the east coast. If you want them 50 bucks for the pair.

Hey that's cool... and that's definitely a good price!

I need to think a bit on whether I want to switch to leather, and also whether I'm up to a road trip of that length (5-1/2 hours each way from where I live).

Also I won't be able to do anything for a few weeks as I'm going out of town. I'll let you know...

So... does anyone know a way to reach Hank Iroz that he won't ignore?

I sent him a hotside housing for machining to fit a Volvo K24 over a month ago... and I've gotten no word from him since, in spite of sending 4 or 5 emails inquiring about status. Does anyone know how to get his attention? :frustrated:

I'll try to get a hold of him. He has been on ignore getting ready for battle born and now hes chasing to keep up with the stuff he ignored to get battle born done. He'll pull through for you, even if I have to take t trip down to vegas to rattle him around....and you know that would suck......

message sent....

Thanks for your help! :-)

I kind of got the sense he was busy trying to get his 07K project done for some show, but geez... how long does it take to hit "reply" on an email and say "I'm really backed up now, you'll have your stuff in a couple of weeks"?

The real irony is that I was actually in Vegas a week ago and thought about stopping by his place in person to bug him (and see all his cool projects) but didn't have time.