85 UR quattro

9 minute(s) of a 211 minute read

Waiting for parts (drums fingers on desk)

Decided to find some things we will need to do before the car is ready to fire up. Getting ahead so to speak. The hydraulic "bomb" mounts need replacing as the leaking oil has softened them up and they have started to split. Fortunately we bought some new ones a while back. A good time to replace them.

Fortunately the nuts weren't too rusty and didn't put up a fight. Sometimes leaky hydraulics has benefits.

Uh oh! this must have happened in storage DOH. Let's hope they bend back without breaking off. Perhaps we should order a new one anyway.

Old vs. new. A couple are still serviceable. We'll keep them for spares.

And back together.

And on the engine. Yes, it surprised us too. Well, we had to put it somewhere and the dodgy spade terminals we bent back into place will be safer here than back in the parts box. It shouldn't hinder engine installation and one more thing done

6-15-2016

Another update in less than a week. You guys must be feeling rather special now eh?

Just trying to find things to do while those damn heat shields arrive from Germany. Rummaged through the parts bins and found the old front brake lines that need replacing. Couldn't find any OE so decided to make these Centric ones look like OE by transferring the rubber rings over. What do they do anyway?

We actually had some we pulled off the 83 car. That one's getting stainless lines so we just cut the old ones which made getting these off quite simple.

However, getting them on the new lines was not so easy as they didn't want to expand over the fittings. Never mind, nothing a utility knife and some glue can't handle.

Wheel leave them to cure for a while eh.

We only need one holder ring so we cut one off. We decided to use the Centric one as our original ones are already falling apart.

Oh, is that the DHL truck?

6-30-2016

When we last conversed we were finding things to do while we waited for a heat shield to arrive from Germany. Well guess what; it arrived, along with a few other bits and bob. we must say, it looks a lot better than what we pulled out of the 83.

It was quickly installed but as soon as it was on we thought "Uh oh, we might have to take it off to get the engine in" DOH! well, we had no idea what it looked like until it was here so how could we know it might be in the way. Oh well, another month wasted.

So, not to waste any more time we quickly started to pop the engine back in. It was a little tricky to lift it into place as we had to guideit around a lot of stuff (but not that damn heat shield as we took it off) but eventually it lined up with the engine and subframe mounts and we bolted into place, hand tight for now. 

This is the first time it's had an engine in it since February 2015! We have so much more room in the shop now.

What next then? We guess connect as little stuff as necessary to fire it up while refurbishing whatever is necessary. Stay tuned.

7-10-2016

Started to put the car car back together yesterday. Unfortunately it's been two years since we last saw where everything went so it's a bit of a challenge. Fortunately we have an 83 in the corner to refer to. Unfortunately, because it's a Quattro you can't see anything LOL.

Still, we press on regardless.

Aligned the engine and torqued all the subframe, engine and transmission bolts. Well, the ones you can get a torque wrench on.

connected the hydraulic pipe to the bomb. This connection does not seem to rotate so we took the bomb off and rotated that instead. This is now the third time we have installed the bomb.

Reconected the exhaust.

Reconnected the rear drive shaft.

Reconnected the shift linkage. Goes into all the gears but might need adjusting though.

Installed the right engine mount heat shield, again. It wanted to go in front of the oil cooler mounting tab so we mounted that too. I bet we take it off again later.

Installed the right transmission mount heat shield. Yes, we are missing a screw. It's like no other screw on the planet and seems to be NLA. Thanks Audi. 

Reconnected the clutch line.

Not sure when we'll get chance to throw some more parts at it. Schedule is a bit full for the foreseeable future and the Tour de France is on TV six hours a day!

7-14-2016

Le Tour be dammed; we're working the car! A bit.

Got the oil bollocks, er, we mean oil filters installed.

and the front torque support/alternator mount. What does that do anyway?

Installed the vacuum lines on the front diff actuator while it is still accessible. Looks like we may have guessed the orientation correctly.

Axle, strut and brakes! Well, on one side at least but still......

It's starting to look like a car again. Next year we'll install the strut on the other side

7-15-2016

More progress. Yes, we know. We are going nuts.

We had to put the other side's front suspension on. We couldn't help ourselves.

The interesting thing now is that we could roll it off the hoist if needed. However, we swore it would only ever drive off. Let's see how that works out.

One exciting (to us) aspect of the suspension reinstall is that we think we may have found a solution for a problem that isn't really a problem. Due to the upper strut bushings compressing even when new, there is always a gap between the strut top and the body. We found some rubber washers in the plumbing isle that fill this gap perfectly and installed them today. Makes us warm and fuzzy inside.

We used two per side. One and a half would have been perfect.