School me on the quattro drivetrain

[ADCS]

So long story short-ish, I attempted to pull a 6spd trans and rear diff from a car at a wrecker but had some difficulty with getting the axles and driveshafts removed. And it didn't help that the wreckers yard is a mud pit right now with all the snow melting. I was soaked after being under the car.

1) With the wheels off the ground is there any way to lock the front axles so that I can remove the tripple-square bolts for the front axles? I tried stomping on the brakes but this only worked for the driver side. The passenger side would still spin. There is no brake fluid in the car so there likely isn't enough clamping force. I am not sure why it held up for the driver side and not for the passenger side. I tried putting the trans into gear but the axles would still rotate. Is this normal?

2) Solved.

Thanks!
Adam

[Spike00513]

1) With the wheels off the ground is there any way to lock the front axles so that I can remove the tripple-square bolts for the front axles? I tried stomping on the brakes but this only worked for the driver side. The passenger side would still spin. There is no brake fluid in the car so there likely isn't enough clamping force. I am not sure why it held up for the driver side and not for the passenger side. I tried putting the trans into gear but the axles would still rotate. Is this normal?

Screw in the lug bolts. Use a pry-bar between them. Removing the inner triple square bolts like that is easy. Using the same counter-hold method to remove the outer axle bolt (large) is more difficult, because it's in there at a much higher torque.

You can wrap some sand-paper around the drive-shaft, and grip it hard with one hand while you loosen the bolts. That way you have a better grip. It also helps to heat the bolts with a torch, then spray the bolt head with cold water. That way, the bolt that expanded and widened the thread-hole its in, shrinks from the water, and loosens up. You have to break it loose shortly after the water.

[f1torrents]

It seems southern Ontario is the place to be if you want to do a 2.7T swap.
Everyday I see another person around here doing it.

:)

[mec]

Take a long piece of wood, cut it down so it looks like a wedge, wedge it between the wheel and the brake caliper. Go to town on all the bolts, axle, tranny to axle,hub, whateva

[87supraman]

Lots of good suggestions. What I have done in the past: If you dont need to salvage the hubs, just stick a fatty screwdriver through the wheel bolt holes. Rotate hub until the screwdriver hits the steering knuckle. If you need to save the hub threads, use a brass rod/punch instead of steel.

[Seerlah]

1/4" cordless impact with a very long extension (will most likely take 2 long ones, and use a wobble one on the end). Make sure the bit is seated first or you are destined to strip the bolts. This is how I do mine. Before this, I would only raise one corner and do one side at a time. With the other wheel/tire on the ground, you can undo the adjacent side.

[ADCS]

Thanks for the tips guys! All very good ideas to try.

Does anybody know if the behavior listed is normal? Should I be able to rotate the front axles with the trans in gear? The engine may not have had the spark plugs installed but even then there was no resistance. I could easily rotate them by hand. Should I be able to rotate the front-to-rear driveshaft while the other axles don't rotate? Actually only the passenger front was spinning.

I don't want to spend more time wrenching on the car if the trans or diff is fubared. The car has 320k kms after all. Oh and today will be freezing rain so conditions will be even worse!! Ugghhh.

[ADCS]

It seems southern Ontario is the place to be if you want to do a 2.7T swap.
Everyday I see another person around here doing it.

:)

Yes sir. And everybody knows it. Prices for 2.7T engine/parts has sky rocketed in the past year. My engine is a BEL so I may need some help on the tuning side of things. I have all the cables including a bench flash setup but I am still to green. As far as I know you and B6T are the only two running a BEL?

[Seerlah]

Completely normal. Adjacent wheel turns in opposite direction.

[ADCS]

Completely normal. Adjacent wheel turns in opposite direction.

Are you sure? That sounds like a limited slip differential which we don't have.

[Seerlah]

Positive. I tinkered with my car enough to know.

[19jdog]

Im curious, how much are they charging you for the 6 speed? I really want to swap out my tip.

[Sales@DriveAuto]

x2. Prices seem all over the board lately.

[ADCS]

I am in Canada so actual the price is probably irrelevant for most on here. I'll say the wrecker I was at has universal pricing so a trans from a ford focus is the same price as a 6spd Audi trans.

[ADCS]

Positive. I tinkered with my car enough to know.

Ok. So the torsen is only controlling motion and torque between the front and rear so I can understand turning the front axles doesn't affect the rear axles. Left to right motion is via a traditional open style differential. One side can rotate (left) while the other side (right) is stationary. But can both left and right on the same axle remain stationary while the input pinion and ring gear are rotating?

So ignoring the front, if I am spinning the input to the rear diff via the main front-to-rear driveshaft, why would neither rear diff output flanges (half shafts) rotate? I know they are able to rotate at different speeds but in this case neither side had any rotation when rotating the input. How can the pinion and ring gear rotate with no rotation of either output? Can the the sun and planet gear rotation offset eachother so no output rotation occurs on either side?

[ADCS]

So the diff input definitely cannot spin if both rear wheels are locked. Makes sense, pinon and ring gear can't rotate if the planet gears are locked.

Anyways, got the rear diff and driveshaft off the car. The trans will be tough. If it is still there next time I am there I may just drop the whole front subframe in order to get at the trans bolts. Especially without having a jack and the car sitting in mud.