85 URQ Joins

[team illuminata]

Something from this box should work




Like this perhaps




BINGO!




All gone




Now I have to tear this apart.




The parts haul so far




I also discovered that my right side engine mount is collapsed so that will have to be replaced too. And, my right side hub is very loose in int housing. Is that normal or should I be doing wheel bearings too?

[team illuminata]

More unbolting today.

I was advised to remove the tie rod ends so I could free up the adjusters as I will need an alignment when I'm done.




So I did, then sprayed it with PB Blaster.




This is where it bolts to the rack. Interesting arrangement.




I took a gearbox mount off to change it but it looked new so I bolted it back on and crossed it off my list.




Have an exhaust leak from here. Had to cut the bolts with a hacksaw blade. Going to need a new donut.




Drained the coolant and flushed the system.




Removed the heater valve as I have constant heat. Seems to close though. I think I will replace it anyway.




Monday I shop for parts and do my taxes.

[team illuminata]

Disassembled both front struts today. Wasn't too hard.




The only problem is the free Bilsteins I have aren't going to fit. They are off a later model. So, I need some inserts. Koni or Bilstein. Can't seem to find them in stock anywhere. Anyone have any sitting around?

Need quite a few parts before I can put this thing back together. namely:

Blue upper mounts
Dampers, Koni preferred
Front 86-2086 sport 2-6 weeks
Rear 86-2087 sport in stock at Koni
Front Strut bellows
End link
Wheel bearings
heater valve
coolant G12 or regular green stuff?
Exhaust donut

[team illuminata]

Koni inserts are on their way from a fellow URQ owner. Thanks Martin. I've found nice German top mounts and wheel bearings and most of the other parts I need. Still looking for the anti roll bar bushings and I'm not sure if I want to spend over $200 on an OE ball joint.

Took my struts and control arms to see my Freind Mat at MCE Tuning. He pressed out the wheel bearings for me no problem.




Old worn out bearing on the floor.




Inner race stayed on the hub! Mat got ot off.




Then cleaned up the wheel bearing hosings so the new bearings will go in nicely.



Next I start working on getting the control arm bushings out.

[team illuminata]

With parts sourced over the weekend it's time to tackle the rear suspension but I'm clearly not going to get at these from the trunk. Not with an impact gun anyway.




Had to take the back seats out. Looks like a race car




Had to use my bendy and impact gun to get the strut nuts off.




Everything loose, legs hanging. Had to use the ball joint tool kit again but now I'm an expert they just fell off.




My quattro is now "legless"!




The wheel bearings are better than the fronts but I think I'm going to change them anyway. Ball joints and tie rods seem ok so they can stay. Not excited about removing the strut inserts on these though. A lot rustier looking than the fronts were The left handbrake cable looks a little worse for wear but I have a pair on the way.

[team illuminata]

I got the rear struts apart yesterday. They were not as bad as I thought. I held the nut in a vice, applied heat and hit the steering arm with a hammer till it came loose.

People have suggested powder coating all the suspension components while they are off the car. I have been reluctant to do this as I am trying to not restore the car but maintain its originality. However, looking at the surface rust on the rear struts I feel I must at least POR15 the springs, rear struts and top hats just to preserve them.




With that in mind I degreased them with Marine Clean yesterday after removing loose rust with a wire brush.



Today, if I get chance, I will prep them and paint them with POR15 black.

[team illuminata]

Started the POR15 rust inhibition project today. Prepped with POR prep stuff.




First coat of POR15 applied. Of course I managed to get some on my hands and face.

[team illuminata]

Huge parts haul today. Coolant, front wheel bearings, top mounts, handbrake cables. Control arm bushings etc.




I think I may be starting put the car back together. After installing the new heater control valve I added coolant and put the steering arms back in the car today.



After that I dropped off the control arms and bushings at a friend's so he can attack them with his new press.

Have a good weekend.

[team illuminata]

It's KONI time in the shop this week!



Time to start putting this car back together but one question to resolve before I do that is where to set the adjustable KONI inserts. I like a responsive ride, my other car's a race car, but don't want to ruin the ride quality especially as you have to take these buggers out again to adjust them. So where to begin, #1, #2, #5?. Anyone have any experience with these?

[team illuminata]

I started to re-assemble the front struts this afternoon. Pressed in the wheel bearings.






Pressed the hub on and inserted the Koni inserts.




Need to decide on settings before I install the springs. Currently on 2 out of 5. Anyone know where these go?




The POR15 was a bit glossy so I went over the top hats and springs with some flat black.




I also re-installed the control arms and new right side ball joint. If I get chance tomorrow I'll install the springs then put the front struts back on the car!

[team illuminata]

Semi productive day today. I was hoping to have the car back on its wheels, maybe even driving but alas, I was thwarted by a wrong part. Seems I have a ball joint for a 4000 instead. Bugger!

Still, I got all four struts assembled and the Konis set. I went with 1 turn on the fronts, 1.5 in the rear. If I don't like it they are easy to adjust.....NOT!

Installed all but the right front strut on the car. Even that is technically on the car. Just hanging from the upper mount for now. I ordered a TSW ball joint from Rock Auto as a back up. OE versions are very pricey. Tomorrow I will search locally for a decent one. If I can't find one I'll wait for the TSW one. That's what's already on the left side anyway.

Hopefully, if I get time tomorrow I'll drop the rear on the ground and tighten all the bolts, put the rear seats back in and maybe, if I can find some, replace the blown rear speakers. I guess I could also drop and tighten the front left too. I can also install the new catalytic converter gasket and cinch that up so I can start the engine and burp the coolant. Then an alignment and we drive it. Damn, wish I had a ball joint.

[team illuminata]

Looks like a car again. At least this side does.




This side's still missing a leg!




So, thirty years ago a small, select group of Audi engineers sat down together to eat pizza and hatch a cunning plan. "I know..." proffers one
particularly sneaky engineer "...... let's build a 4wd turbo car that looks just like the Coupe GT but uses non of its parts. NONE. This will really
mess with their heads in about thirty years time. HAH!"

See, it wasn't about rally at all. It was just a German practical joke!

[team illuminata]

It's funny what you'll do while your waiting for parts. I decided to have a look at the aftermarket speakers on the rear parcel shelf. They are ugly and sound really tinny.




Oh my! How do we improve on this situation? What is the OE configuration like? Anyone have an original parcel shelf? With speakers?



I tried some other speakers in there but they were too bg and still sounded tinny. Maybe my acoustic issue lies somewhere else.

Still no sign of another (probably wrong) balljoint so I decided to pull out the passenger seat. Why? Severe case of wobble-bottom due to suspected worn slider bushings. BTW easiest seat extraction ever!



Or non existent slider bushings.




Oh, here it is. Hiding in the slider rail. Yuk.




and here's the new ones I surreptitiously picked up off eBay. Yes, I did buy two sets but the driver's seat is not so bad just yet. maybe, when my wrong balljoint gets here I will decide it is aweful and swap them too.




Here, that's better.




Then, really desperate, I downloaded this to play through my new OE stereo.

AUTOBAHN (Kraftwerk) - self made music video - YouTube

I wanna go for a drive

[team illuminata]

Look what Postman Pat brought me yesterday.




It fits too!



OK, I know, it's not OE and will probably wear out in about 10,000 miles but it's a tenth of the price!

So here it is, finally, back on all fours.




So i fired up the quattro and backed it out to get it up to temperature. I needed to burp the cooling system and test my new heater valve. Heater valve works but still runs a little warm at full cold. It is not closing fully though it did on the bench. I think a small cable adjustment should take care of things.




Then I took it out for a test drive. I must say the Kraftwerk worked perfectly. Exactly as described. New suspension's not bad either. Initially the new dampers seemed crashy over small bumps but soon settled down. I was a little surprised that the dampers did not feel stiffer as I set them around half their range. I couldn't really get on it though as the front anti roll bar is still off and I only have an eyeball alignment. I'm sure I'm going to be very happy with it once it's aligned and fully together next week.

I put the old speakers back in place but didn't reconnect them. The front are fine for now. Would love to get a replacement parcel shelf and original speakers though. Anyone?

I also installed the new cat gasket/donut but I think it's still blowing a bit

So I'm done for now. There's quite a few things on my original hit list that I didn't do yet and a few new ones but it's time to drive this thing.

[Sepp]

Awesome stuff!!!!!

Thanks for sharing!!

[team illuminata]

I took the car down to Auto Europe for an alignment Tuesday.





My eyeballed alignment was way off as you might imagine but Charles whipped it back into shape.



So i've only put a few dozen miles on the car and the front anti-roll bar is missing but this beast has been transformed. No more boings and rattles from the loos suspension, goes where you point it and is very responsive. Just rolls a bit in corners as you might imagine. So everything is good. Not quite..........radiator started leaking yesterday. just a little froom the top seam:



and maybe the core



Can this be fixed, perhaps in situ? I don't want a new radiator as I love the look of the aged brass top.

I also have a small leak now from the power steering regulator but haven't yet isolated the source.

It never raiins but it pours (or weeps) with these cars.

[Sepp]

For the radiator, not in car repair, but I did get mine re-cored...keeping the ends.

It looks as if your coolant is green.

This can be bad.
I only use the blue VW/Audi coolant, as it has no phosphates..and it's less corrosive than most of the green stuff.

Just need to fully flush the system out before adding the blue..as it's been known on occasion to turn to jello if one mixed colours.

[team illuminata]

For the radiator, not in car repair, but I did get mine re-cored...keeping the ends.

It looks as if your coolant is green.

This can be bad.
I only use the blue VW/Audi coolant, as it has no phosphates..and it's less corrosive than most of the green stuff.

Just need to fully flush the system out before adding the blue..as it's been known on occasion to turn to jello if one mixed colours.

Thanks Sepp. This seems to be the consensus.

The car had green in it when I bought it. Last month I flushed it and refilled it with pink Audi (G12). Now it looks brown. When the radiator gets repaired I'll flush it again and use pink . Maybe it will stay pink after that.

[team illuminata]

Quick radiator removal. This should be easy right?




It has more hoses going to it than my heart has arteries.




Finally got it disconnected and out of the car.






Uh, oh! Where's the isolator mount? Is this replaceable?






Off to the radiator shop for a re-core. Hopefully they can use the end tanks and side brackets.


Finally found a replacement for that decomposing breather hose.




OE exhaust bolts. How concientious is that?




Can't wait to get the radiator back for the shop and start driving this thing.

[team illuminata]

Recored UR Quattro radiator. I asked them not to paint it but now have to decide what to do to it. I was hoping to retain the original look with some of the black paint still on the top with the aged brass showing through but it rather got cleaned off in the process. Do I need to paint the core or can I leave the whole thing raw?




This is what it looked like before and what I hoped to retain:

[team illuminata]

So I decided not to paint anything, just threw it back into the car and drove it to the local track event by way of a shakedown. I hope everyone's cool with that.







Next on the list is to figure out why my washers don't work anymore. Low flow, just dribbles out. I also need to get the anti roll bar back on, detail it and rebalance the wheels. Then, hopefully, I can enjoy the car for a few months, so long as the clutch lasts. It feels awefully high on the pedal lately.

[Sepp]

Good Luck!!!

and niiiiiice Mk1 Cortina!!!

[team illuminata]

Good Luck!!!

and niiiiiice Mk1 Cortina!!!

LOTUS Cortina!

[Sepp]

Green strip is dead giveaway it's such (or a replica)
I nearly got a Mk2.

Fab cars.

[team illuminata]

Well, looks like I haven't updated this thread for a while. I'm going to use the excuse that I have been driving the car instead of working on it. Who'd have thought?

I did finally get the anti roll bar back on. Had to order parts from the UK. I couldn't find OE bushings so had to settle for upgraded poly versions. I'm sure they are better but are a bit blue.





I also had to buy a pair of anti roll bar endlinks with bushings from the UK to replace the one I broke during disassembly. The very fist nut I tried to remove during the suspension rebuild.






I did put the original wheels back on for the summer



so my friend Tim could put them on his as he was headed to Pike's Peak.



Not a bad bit of exposure for the brand.

I managed to snag a replacement clutch in case mine gives out on me soon. It does feel quite high on the pedal now but is not slipping.





So with the car pretty much back together I have enjoyed driving it around for a few uneventful months and parking it next to other interesting vehicles (apparantly).

















I didn't park it next to these two beauties but I did get to see them in Europe, and about eight others just like them. Yes, they are real, unlike Tim's replica above. I even touched them!




So next on the agenda is to fix the washers as they are quite lame and this one leak.



OE gasket came in today. $3! must be the cheapest quattro fix ever.

Hopefully the car will stay together till winter when I think we may be putting a clutch in it. How hard could that be?

[MattFueh2234]

Great car, Paul! Thanks for sharing.

I just had my A3 serviced at my neighbor's repair shop here in Philadelphia and what do I see? A white ur quattro sitting there getting dusty. I think my heart skipped a beat when I saw it. With white wheels like yours, too. Now, days later I can't stop thinking about it!! D'oh!
Damn I want that car.

Back when I was a kid (in my 20's) I had a '87 Coupe GT and always wished it was a URQ. I got rid of the CGT in '99 when it wouldn't pass inspection. 2 different shops gave me a laundry list of things wrong including cracked exhaust manifold with a price around $1700 to fix. That was it for me, I gave it to a VW dealer and bought a brand new Jetta. It was time anyways since after 7 years of daily driving the CGT was getting old to me. When I got the CGT it had 99k miles. When I was done it had 250k miles on it! All-in-all it was good to me. I remember I spent about $1,000 a year to maintain it.

Anyways, if luck has it go my way maybe I'll have a great white URQ in my possession sometime on the near future. If I do I will definitely share!

[team illuminata]

Buy it. Or tell me where it is. I have friend looking for one.

$1700 is a cheap repair bill on a URQ.

[team illuminata]

I think my BRAID Serie 6 RC wheels look much better on my mate Tim's car than mine.





So i'm thinking of getting some Serie 4 RC instead.

[team illuminata]

Here's another option. I could get BRAID to make some 9x15 RONAL replicas like these:



Of course they'd have to make more than one set. Anyone else interested?

[vulpi]

Love your work!

Could you have the Ronal R8 reps made in 16 inch so we can get tires for them?

I would buy some sixteens for sure!

[George@Fourtitude]

Let me know if you plan to do a run, and I'll run a story on the site and push to social media. You might also contact 2Benett as I bet they could sell more than a few sets of 16-inch Ronals.

[team illuminata]

Love your work!

Could you have the Ronal R8 reps made in 16 inch so we can get tires for them?

I would buy some sixteens for sure!

Probably, if there were enough interest. Need about 100 to make it viable. What size tires would you run on 16s?

[team illuminata]

Let me know if you plan to do a run, and I'll run a story on the site and push to social media. You might also contact 2Benett as I bet they could sell more than a few sets of 16-inch Ronals.

Will do George.

[team illuminata]

Probably, if there were enough interest. Need about 100 to make it viable. What size tires would you run on 16s?

8" or 9" wide?

[team illuminata]

OK, it's a GO. I'm getting some 15x9 Ronals!

We have teamed up with HANSPORT in the UK and BRAID Wheels in Barcelona to offer classic Audi replica rally wheels in the original specs starting with the 15x9 Ronal originally used on the Sport quattro.



These wheels will be heat treated cast aluminium, 15x9, ET12, 5x112 with a 57.1 center bore, white powder coat finish. Other colours will be available at extra cost.

These wheels will be sold exclusively through Hansport. Team Illuminata Motorsport, through our subsidiary BRAID USA will manage the project. Price is not yet set but expected to be around £500/$800/620€ each. Available as a minimum order of four wheels with no maximum. Delivered anywhere in the world. 50% deposit due with order, balance before delivery.

The main thread for this project will be http://www.quattroforum.com/index.ph...5/#post-159948. Please post any questions and orders there or contact Hansport or myself direct.

BRAID have been making high quality, competition wheels in Europe since 1978. They offer a full range of competition wheels for all forms of motorsport and classic cars. BRAID wheels are specifically designed for competition but, of course, are equally at home on the street. Many of BRAID's are cast from lightweight aluminum and heat treated for maximum strength. Others use forged or flowcast technology. BRAID already produce many ultra-high quality replica wheels for customers including Porsche 911 Fuchs, Ferrari F40 and Lancia 037.




Hansport was founded by John Hanlon in 1996 to restore, prepare and provide on-event support for an ever increasing personal collection of historic competition cars. The HanSport Team combines the talents of engineers who insist upon excellence, have a true understanding and passion for motorsport, together with it's history. Over the years, HanSport have prepared cars which have subsequently been piloted by many World Championship Winning drivers, such as Hannu Mikkola, Michèle Mouton, Stig Blomqvist, Jimmy McRae and Harald Demuth; to name just a few. HanSport currently own the largest collection of factory Group B Audis in the world and are based in Manchester, England; my home town.