I live just north of Winchester va. Ive owned quite a few audis, no major mods, mostly maintenance and little tweaks here and there. Ive worked as a mechanic for the last 12 years, about 95% of what I do is European cars, ive always worked at indies so it been all types, all different years. From carbs to cis to efi to direct inject, with a little diesel here and there.
-84 4kq with nf engine and coil overs, hit a deer, stripped and crushed
-87 5tkq chip and spring, bpv. hit a deer, pulled motor and crushed
-88 5ktq chip spring, bpv, motor from previous with the NF head from the 84, parted and cushed
-90 200tqa sold
-89 200tqa 20v intercooler, swann chip spring, bpv. currently offline future unknown...
-2001 a4 1.8tqa manual trans, stage 2 unitronic, exhaust, drop in filter, upgraded d.v. replaced the wifes old 200tqa as her daily
So the project car is an 1985 4000q. It has the mc1 from the 88 5ktq. NF head with 034 larger exhaust valves, headstuds, mls headgasket, dialynx exhaust manifold, k24, front mount ebay intercooler that is slightly larger than a urq intercooler larger oil cooler mounted in front on the radiator. 3b clutch and flywheel. 5ktq trans with an urq rear diff. Lots of suspension upgrades. Interior is black leather I swapped in with good door cards and pretty beat seats. Im running CIS with a wide band to keep it in check. Running about 18 psi right now. Cant wait to ditch it, not that I hate CIS, im just excited to learn about stand alone and cant wait for a little more power. I just did the 5 lug swap and have a few questions.
I used 5ktq front strut housings, 5ktq struts, g60 brakes, comp brake strut mounts, mark 2 gti tie rod ends, 034 bent tie rod, 034 urq ball joints, a1 racing sleeves, adjusters and hats and helper springs with eibach main springs, flat bearings on the spring seats. set ride height a little lower than stock maybe. The comp brake strut mounts don't seem to engage quite enough thread for my liking since the 5ktq struts don't have as many. I think im going to switch to urq bilsteins to remedy this. I love how they feel, I hope they last as they seem to get mixed reviews.
I set the alignment by, setting the wheel straight ahead and then measuring from the front of the tires, tread to tread and then the rear of the tires until the were equal. I also measured from the inner tread to the sway bar mount bracket and tried to keep those measurements equal as well.
The car rides great no noises and feels tight. The steering however feels very darty and touchy. Its very noticeable on the gravel road I live on. A little steering input goes a long way and seems to need constant input. feels a little scary at speed on the gravel road.
I was wondering if I could have bent the tie rod to much or in the wrong spot? I had to bend it more since it was hitting the down pipe. Put it in the press at work and made some adjustments with a hammer on the floor when I got it home
Does it matter I switched the mark 2 tie rods, left on the right and right on the left? Seemed better for tie rod clearance.
Ive been reading a bit about bump steer and steering geometry and wonder if this might be my problem. I know my alignment is pretty slack but ive checked it a few times, and have done this type of alignment before with much better results. I fully plan on getting a 4 wheel alignment but I don't want to pay for one and then need to tear it all back apart. I know this swap has been done many times so I just wanted to get some input before I take it in to get it aligned or tear it back apart. gonna try and add some pics here too.
