Rear Sub Frame Refresh

[montez]

It was one of the rear threaded ones so a complete PITA head snapped off, drilled all the rubber out around it and dropped the frame now, taken it to an engineering place to have the bushes pushed out as I cant be arsed now after the hassle I had taking it off. Going to try and get the remaining stud and bush out later.

[montez]

Got the B*astard out with a pair of stilsons after snapping the first pair lol, so glad the bolt did not shear off in the captive nut

[Dpicariello]

Sounds like you've had a bit of a tough time with your sub frame!

Had a good and bad day. Finally and surprisingly easy, got the sub frame bushes out. Drilled the centre piece out as people have suggested and then pry'd the outer lip of the outer sleeve up as far as possible. Then smashed the sleeve out with a chisel and hammer. Wasn't pretty but was effective! Oh and there was some fire involved for good measure .

Bad news is that during removal of a rear wishbone bush the ring that houses the bush has sheared. The bushes are unbelievably tight, they haven't budged! So I am in need of a new wishbone. I bought a new front one from Quinton Hazell a few years ago and don't remember it being too expensive. I'm hoping they're not too bad still.

[montez]

When I did the wishbone bushes I removed the rubber then cut the ring out with a hack saw, then folded it in on itself. Was not quick but worked eventually! Got fed up with subframe after it took so long to get it off and got the Subframe and Diff bushed pushed out at a local engineering place for £18

[Dpicariello]

New wishbone and track rod end ordered.

Diff cleaned up and added a bit of diff oil as last time I changed it I didn't think I had put enough in. Filled it just shy of the fill hole whilst on level ground.

I thought my diff was leaking but I think it was an old issue as all the oil that I saw was very old. I don't fancy cracking open the diff to replace the seals so it's staying as is.

Had a look at the prop centre bearing. All of shielding between the exhaust and the prop shaft has kept the transmission tunnel immaculate. It's absolutely spotless! Not gonna replace that bearing now as it would mean a load more work.

I appreciate that there are loads of items that could be inspected/replaced but this car needs to be done by next weekend and at the moment I seem to be undoing/taking stuff off rather than rebuilding stuff!

Sub frame, wishbones and anti roll bar are at Redditch Shotblasters. The aluminium diff arms are also being bead blasted which should give quite a nice finish. Should have them ready by Wednesday.

[Dpicariello]

I never thought I'd be putting photo's such as these on here. They are usually reserved for the hardcore total rebuild projects but this is turning into one!

Picked up everything this morning from Redditch Shotblasters and Quattro Corner (thanks again to Pete). All laid out ready to go together, it's so nice to deal with parts like this! Can't believe that some of the parts are the same as those in the pictures earlier in this thread!





I've got the rest of the bank holiday weekend to put it all back together and then will get it aligned next week sometime. Good times..... just expensive ones too!!!

[willg54]

looks good!! Redditch look like they've done a top job there!

[Dpicariello]

I have had the diff 'arms' (left, right and rear) bead blasted and I have protected them with a clear lacquer (I know.... I have OCD). The rear diff mount is still in the aluminium housing and the bead blast has cleaned it up brilliantly. However, I'm still going to change it as I have the new mount (OEM) and it shouldn't be too difficult to get out pending the answer to this question.

I am going to visit a few garages on Saturday to see if they can press it out but wondered how tight it's going to be as I don't want to mess up all the work I've done on getting to this stage.

[s2driveruk]

looking great Dan. I think I painted my diff arms with audi silver metallic paint (was similarly OCD at the time) and then lacquered them with a oil/petrol resistant one and looking under the rear end yesterday they are in great nick still so definately keeps them well protected.

As long as the rear diff isnt p*ssing oil out the seals I think you should be ok, most are always wet these days and mine even continued to do it shortly after changing the larger, passenger side seal too so I wouldnt worry to much.

Nice job....I did the front but still have the rear to do on mine properly (wishbones were blasted, zinc primed and powder coated and look perfect still from 3.5years ago.

[Dpicariello]

Spent hours and hours and hours today on replacing the rear diff mount. Horrendous job!
My mate John managed to cut through the sleeve and not damage the aluminium casing but it still took a lot of brute force to get the sleeve completely out.

Fitting the new mount was horrible. The vice we used kept slipping as I think the threads are knackered so we had to 'persuade' it in with a soft hammer. Again, lots of force required!

Anyway, finally got is fitted. Got the aluminium housing fitted to the diff, the diff to the subframe and the whole lot is now attached to the car. I'm really please we managed to mount it back up as it feels like real progress despite all the hassle with the diff mount.

I'm going to fit the rear wishbones and rear anti roll bar tomorrow or Monday and then it just needs an alignment.

[Dpicariello]

As a single reference, here are the torque settings (taken from some threads on here and S2-audi.co.uk).

Subframe Bolts - 35Nm + 90º
Fitted in the following order: Right Rear, Left Rear, Right Front, Left Front

Wishbone Bolts - 70Nm + 90º
Drop Link Nuts - 45Nm
ARB Bracket Bolts - 25Nm
Tie Rod Bolts on Sub Frame - 75Nm
Tie Rod Nut - 40Nm
Diff Mounts - 25Nm (all three)
Drive Shaft to Diff Bolts - 80Nm
Prop Shaft to Diff Bolts - 60Nn

[Dpicariello]

Re-fitting the sub frame was a relatively straightforward job. My only niggle was not being able to torque the prop shaft bolts up properly as I couldn't get my torque wrench in there. I took the approach of doing them up ****in tight so they should be OK.

After the faff of getting an alignment (see here) I ended up going to Lodge Tyre in Birmingham on Wednesday who were excellent and have done a proper job for £60.

Top = before, Bottom = after



The alignment has done wonders to the feel of the car. If I'm completely honest I've not noticed a night and day difference between how the car drives now and how is did before I took the sub frame off. It doesn't creak anymore when coming off speed bumps and there are no knocks so that is a good thing. This was always a prevention rather than cure job as I know everything is absolutely spot on back there now.

My only issue is that now the front looks terrible in comparison. I'm not redoing all that though as I only replaced all the bushes 18months ago and it's just me being @nal and wanting a showroom shine underneath the car!!!

[Fat Audi 80]

Nice one Dan. I didn't look too badly aligned in the first place, but is better now.

[S2central.net]

Nice rear undercarriage - those jobs take ages but it is so satisfying to complete a task like that - especially with added stress of DIY bush and joint removal that can easily turn into a ballache.

[rj scotty]

I'm glad lodge looked after you