Monday, April 17, 2023

Audi 5000 Revival II - Clutch and Axle

The clutch hydraulics are shot. There appears to be a leak from the slave cylinder, and also the flexible hose going to the cylinder. This is a problem, since there is no OEM style replacement option for this hose. However, there is one company selling steel braided upgraded hoses:


This is kind of overkill for a 100hp engine, but I appreciate it. The slave cylinder itself was a pain to change, being corroded inside the transmission case. I had to be mean to it. There is a roll pin that holds it in place:


I happened to use a 3/16" punch that was slightly too small, and it got wedged into the roll pin instead of driving it out. Big oof. After a half hour of wrestling to get my punch back, I used an M6 bolt and a hammer to finally drive out the pin. Even then, the slave cylinder was stuck, and I had to drive that out with an air hammer. Thanks corrosion.


The new slave cylinder went in more easily after cleaning out the mounting hole. Last was the clutch master cylinder, which required a lot of contortion to get to under the dashboard. I didn't take pictures because it just kinda sucked to change. I should have just removed the driver's seat first. But with all the clutch hydraulic parts changed, my brother and I proceeded to waste a bottle of brake fluid trying to get the air out of the system. No dice, the pedal wouldn't firm up and we gave up. I decided to let it sit overnight to see if the air would work itself out naturally, and it did! The next morning I had a perfect clutch pedal.

Next is the axle. The outer boot on the left side was torn. While replacement axles are available, this is a factory axle with only 40,000 miles on it. Replacement aftermarket axles will break long before this one will, so putting a new boot on it is the best option.

I removed the clamps and old boot to reveal a greasy mess, but that's a good thing since the CV joint didn't get a chance to rust from water intrusion. 

 

I made the mistake of trying to hammer the inner bearing race off the axle shaft before I realized there is a special retaining clip that must be pried open first. I must have fumbled with the clip for half an hour before I figured out a way to wedge it open and hold it while hammering on the bearing race. An M7 bolt did the trick. Not fun. 

 

Now onto the cleaning portion. The ball bearings come out like a 3d puzzle, where you rotate the inner race and remove them one by one. Then the race and carrier can slide out. Cleaning the CV joint is like cleaning a bike hub, just with bigger ball bearings:

I used my usual mineral spirits to get them nice and clean. For reassembly, I thinly coated the bearings with motor oil (I could have used the CV grease that came with the kit, but I hate touching that stuff and reserve it for last). Next I had to solve the 3D puzzle in reverse to get the bearings back in one by one:

Then I squeezed the grease packet into the freshly reassembled CV joint, and slid the new boot onto the axle shaft:

 

After hammering the joint back onto the shaft, I finally secured the clamps with a pair of dull end-knippers:

The last step is cleaning the messy CV grease off my tools. Yuck. Cheers.


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