The Project Pad

Just wait till the Audi electrical issues start...........

START!? Buddy did you read my hassle with wiring/VEMS and other crap last summer? Car off road from May-October. Perfect.

ohhhh thats right! I totally forgot about that! Let me correct my previous statement.

Just wait till the MELTED FRIED WIRES START AND YOU WILL GO CRAZY FINDING IT

Haha.

Holy crap. I just read through the thread from April-October of 2013. It makes me feel sick reading everything that I went through. Literally 7 months of insanity.

You say that like it's over.

We Audi owners love punishment.

WOMBAT wrote:You say that like it's over.

We Audi owners love punishment.

This is why I have a Dodge small block. Because when I get tired of the 80s bullshit, I can just mosey on over to my pickup, start it, and go spin 26" of treadwidth with no problems.....although the tires are beginning to show cords now lol

Haha.

Small progress tonight. After I fought with the first control arm bushing I got the torch out to heat the CA. The bushings then came out LIKE BUTTER. When I did the first one I put all the new track density bushings outside to shrink them. Works good when it's -20 out. Used the vice to press them all in and went very smoothly. Then I cleaned the subframe which was pretty good to begin with.

So... how the fox do you install the swaybar bushings into the control arm? They're soft and just squish when using the vice. Do I need to put the sleeve first?

I did a little test with the control arm bushings just to see, put them in the vice and put a screwdriver through and moved it side to side... old ones move a shitload and new ones move 0. Sweet.

Holy mother of God, those swaybar bushings suck to install. I had to do both of em like this with a screwdriver:





But I finally got them all. It's definitely much more solid now. Also assembled the front subframe. I put the control arms in backwards of course and only noticed when I went to install the swaybar. Doh.



Only thing left on the front is to put the helper springs and strut mounts in, tie rod ends, one ball joint and the cv boot. I just have to figure out how the friggin strut nut thingy comes off.

Comparison of strut mounts, seen before I'm sure:

hahahahahha have fun with the strut nut. I always compressed the spring then used a pair of needle nose pliers to unscrew them

I actually had the special tool at one point. Well, brother did.
My buddy had a friend that was lowering (read:stancing the stupid POS) his VW and we lent it to him. Castle nut tool.

Never saw it again. Jerkoff.

AngryTaco wrote:hahahahahha have fun with the strut nut. I always compressed the spring then used a pair of needle nose pliers to unscrew them

A pair of needlenose is a good idea. Thankfully with the coilovers I don't need to compress them since there's 2" of slack. So it should go okay... and I have 4 brand new ones! That's nice.

pilihp2 wrote:I actually had the special tool at one point. Well, brother did.
My buddy had a friend that was lowering (read:stancing the stupid POS) his VW and we lent it to him. Castle nut tool.

Never saw it again. Jerkoff.

Bummer. Where's the tool come from? Is it common?

this thing
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Strut-Socket-To ... 589db57fa4

I guess it's not that expensive, so not a huge deal. hah.

Sounds fairly typical. Damn VW people!

Just remember, if you are using rubber control arm bushings, to actually tighten them once they are on the car and it sits where you want it.. otherwise you will damage them.

HTH

Hmm, so they should just be sorta tight until the subframe goes up and everything is reattached? They are tight now... lol.

But they're not rubber. They're delrin, apparently supposed to come with grease but they didn't. Damn it.

you better grease those things or theyll bind. Yes, with rubber you tighten the bushings when the car is where you want it. It effectively "binds" the bushings into place but they can move up or down to a certain tolerance to accommodate the control arm movement. The bolts are moving with the arms while the bushings are actually stretching radially.

But the delrin bushings rotate on the steel sleeves? They are torqued and are hard to move up and down with the subframe sitting on the ground. If they had come with grease I would have greased them up! Agh! So frustrating. Third times the charm I guess?

Do it once, do it right or spend more money and do it again. I know they are a pain in the absolute ass to get at (the bolts) but the grease will also keep them from deteriorating. If they were supposed to come with grease, you should ask whoever you got them from WHY they didn't come with grease, especially if they are advertised as including grease

True say! I do not want to do this again. Lots of people talk about reaming the bushings out for the sleeve but I'm positive I put at least one sleeve in after the bushing was pressed into the control arm so I'm not sure if it's necessary. I'll check it all over. So the face of the bushing and the sleeve should be greased eh... I'm sure the reason why it's so tight is because the two faces of the actual bushing are binding on the subframe.

Well how hard is it to move the arm?

I need to put weight on it. Like... it's pretty stiff. It moves but it's definitely not loose!

Theres something wrong then. It should not bind that much. Perhaps you have simply overtightened the bolts?

Possible for sure. Wish I had the energy to go to the shop tonight. Gonna be an early morning.

Holy crap. Literally everything I take apart has one small thing wrong with it. Two seconds of thought would have revealed the problem and it could have been fixed. For example, the strut mount needing a small washer between it and the upper spring perch to stop the perch from binding on the strut mount when turning, effectively negating the bearing even being there.

Also the ball joint bolt was stripped and was why I thought the ball joint was bad. It's fine with new hardware, looks new even.

Also fixed the control arms. The bushings needed to be reamed and greased and I sanded the subframe a bit. 034 NEEDS TO INCLUDE DOCUMENTATION SAYING THAT THE BUSHINGS NEED TO BE REAMED!!!

Also, my tie rod ends are different. The driver's side is adjustable and the passenger's side isn't. Is this normal? I only received the adjustable type so I just put a new boot on the passenger side.





Had to break for a bit but will be back at it after lunch. I figure two hours to install the complete subframe, tighten up the caliper and ball joints, and change the driver's side tie rod end. And then clean up! I've learned to take my time estimates and quadruple them, lol.

Completed strut with new helper springs and mounts (blurry phone pic lol):



This is what I want for my car. Pretty much exactly.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO59SAjXKJA[/youtube]