On May 20, 2000, we held a general Audi workshop/talkathon at my building in Lee NH. This was inspired by the very successful event hosted last year by Chris Miller. I spent a fair amount of time planning this, and I think it was rewarded by minimal unforeseen difficulties. It looked like six to eight timing belt and water pump replacements would be attempted (the seven coolant stains on the parking lot provide an accurate count!). In addition a Coupe GT was to get new struts and shocks, aided by another attendees kind assistance in the form of a spring compressor. A couple of cars were to get new fuel injectors or seals, and there was a vehicle or two scheduled for minor tuning. We never even looked at Brett's car to figure out the starting problem since he did not have the radio code and got more and more nervous looking as we suggested ways around it.
Many interesting cars made a visit, although no UrQ's were in evidence unfortunately. The local constabulary made a rather clumsy appearance to pass along the whining of the out of state yuppy scum who have been moving in to the new cul-de-sac up the road about some "Audis being raced". Yeah, right. That wasn't racing, those were "Italian tune ups". If we were racing, you'd have known it! Paul Royal, enthusiast, audifans lister and NorthEast Quattro Club representative stopped by to chat and promote the Audi-sponsored Mount Washington "Climb to the Clouds" race and NEQ social event coming up in late June. Nice to see you again, Paul.
Several people expressed surprise that I seemed to be keeping the NASCAR track a half mile away some sort of secret, but when I said something about "turning left, left, left, left..." a few nauseous looks reminded me why I don't mention it more often. Or maybe it was just the pepperoni kicking in?
Klaus Boehm of Atlantic Imported turned up at noon with several of our sets of parts, and incredibly kindly made a couple more parts runs (to his shop, Atlantic Imported, that would normally be closed by Saturday afternoon) to save several people's butts.
Special mention should also accorded to Chris Miller, in attendance against his better judgement, who seemed to manage about six of the timing belt jobs all at the same time, coaching, explaining, and helping set up the special tools... most of which were here because he brought them.
People started showing up shortly after 10 AM as promised, and the first car started to be torn into well before 11. The weather was precisely as I had arranged, partly cloudy but nice, with a brief high just over 60 degrees F, and just enough wind to dissipate fumes without blowing the manuals and papers around. My directions (very minimal) did not seem to make it more difficult for people to find us, though the fact that the Kelsey Road sign has been bent and twisted so you can only see it when you are on Kelsey Road already for about 3 years now, didn't help. Lets face it, I am about a mile south of the Nudist Camp sign, and that's final! As more Audi fans started arriving, I had to juggle cars for a bit, to keep the disabled vehicles in the front row, so the mobile units could easily make their escapes, and so no one was blocking a car that might be ready first. I think I managed to photograph everyone with their car, and then stuck white duct tape name tags to their shirts. For several hours it was hopping room only, with helpers and observers making their rounds between mounds of parts, tools, and grease covered owners. Nothing seemed to change much from hour to hour once everyone was deep into their I5's innards, so Alan and I took a break to climb on the roof and try to capture the moment on film. Chris Miller also appeared to be getting some detail shots for the forthcoming feature length film "Changing the Timing Belt and Water Pump on an Audi 200 Quattro 20 Valve Engine", coming to theaters near you as soon as he finishes post production on it. Brett wouldn't throw his digital camera up to Alan and I, we had to build a series of harnesses and safety ropes fort he process. In the mid afternoon a a welcome break was provided by a pizza run, resulting in even greasier fingers for all and a food-high induced work slowdown. Before we had time to notice he had started, Nate finished doing the timing belt and water pump on his girlfriend Carey's 4000 Quattro and started on his injector seals. We brought some of Alex' new interior (delivered here on Wednesday by a representative of Force 5 Automotive) out into the garden to simulate a car for him to be photographed in. Those of us who enjoy dry humor were quite amused. It has also been established that an entire model 80 interior will fit into a model 200 along with two occupants, though I have not heard yet how comfortable that five hour ride back to New York State was. At some point around 6 or 7 PM, I began to notice that the new parts boxes were more empty than full, and that people had switched their ratchets over from "loosen" to "tighten". This meant it was time to start coming up with replacements for broken or inappropriate bolts, drilling out old rusty bolts, and other general foraging. At this point, I believe there two Chris Millers working the crowd, telling people which length bolts went into which holes in the oil pump... While I grunted and grimaced at differing levels to try to explain the concept of what various torque specs meant in human terms. There is no film of this, luckily. Meanwhile, Brendan was finding out that: 1) the new $10 starter he had was not really the right part, 2) he didn't have all the shifter linkage parts to replace that item, 3) I was spread too thin to focus on installing a set of custom hood struts for him (sorry), and that his car looked good on ramps even if no work was being performed. I think it was dark out when I made the rounds with a 4 foot pipe to scrape all the center supports and hoods to the same specification, and about an hour after that engines would begin to be heard making their tentative "born again" sounds from places where no life had been seen for some time. One man had to reinstall a crank seal due to the difficulty of getting it exactly where the old one was, and one had to tighten an errant oil pump bolt that dripped a little oil - other than that the reassembly processes went quite smoothly. As midnight approached and the weather finally started dripping lightly on us I went from total ignorance to experienced old hand at installing the type 44 front trim and bumpers. You just hold it here and kick it there... At 12:30 AM, six Audis fanned their cautious headlights out into the damp New Hampshire spring night, bringing their weary owners home for much needed and deserved sleep. Luckily for an exhausted Andy S, Alan was kind enough to offer a resting point far nearer than his native New York, transforming an unwelcome late night drive into a much more pleasant one today.
1. Huw Powell (me); timing belt, water pump, coolant flush, (5 days later by Nate!), red 84 4kq
Could not attend at the last minute and were missed: Larry Leung, 200QT
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