Lowering the subframe

I made the decision to remove the entire subframe from the Santorin car to transfer over to the Silver car.  It would be a bit of extra work but the benefit would be components that were nearly corrosion free replacing parts on the Silver car that showed signs of being driven in winter conditions for a few years.

Additionally I was going to need to remove the driveshaft and rear differential from the Silver car in order to move the 6-speed transmission over so this accomplished removing those parts from the Santorin car.

Subframe lowered

Right side

Left side

Left rear angle

Rear straight on

Forward looking back

Moving rearward

After completing the front end swap to both cars I moved to the rear of the Silver car to pull off the stock coilover.

Silver rear coilover

Then I moved to the Santorin car and removed the KW V3 from the passenger’s side.

Santorin rear coilover

During the process of removing these coilover I began to debate the possibility of removing the entire subframe, so that the rear axles and differential along with the control arms and bushings could be swapped out.  The condition of the parts on the Santorin car being corrosion free made doing this swap appealing, but the potential challenges of dealing with the brake lines was a negative.  I’m still debating how to proceed.

At the front of the Santorin car I decided I’d pull the steering rack since it was readily accessible.

Steering rack removed

A replacement part arrived this week.  One of the car’s SSR Comp wheels had been damaged and I wanted to return to a full set.  I’d had a tough time finding anyone selling a single wheel, but I happened upon someone who had a set of three SSR Comps that they were having a tough time finding a buyer for.  I decided that having a lightweight spare wouldn’t be such a bad thing, and I’d have one additional wheel as an additional spare in case something happened to one in the future.  Here I’m test fitting the wheel to ensure it has the right size adapter ring.

SSR Comp replacement

Corner 3/8 done

As I commenced removal of my fourth corner I figured I had a pretty good system going and should be able to get through this final front end corner on the Silver car in decent time.  I even had confidence about dealing with a possibly troublesome tie-rod end.  I hadn’t bargained on encountering son of tie rod end from hell.  I ran into the same stubborn parts (numbered 1 in the picture) as the first tie-rod end from hell and went for round two with the hacksaw.  After sawing the one end off I proceeded to try and twist the other end (numbered 2 in the picture) out of the inner tie rod and the part would not budge.  Of course this is happening up inside the wheel well behind the upright where there is little room to get a decent size wrench on the parts.  After spending an inordinate amount of time trying different ways to get the tie-rod end to budge I finally was able to get two wrenches in close proximity whereby I could squeeze the two together, and I had the tie-rod end pinned to the upper part of the upright to keep it stationary.  The effort was rewarded by what I thought might have been movement, though I feared the wrench had possibly just slipped and not loosened the parts.  I reset the wrenches and went at it again and sure enough there was some movement, but the part was still fighting.  Almost the entire way out I had to have both wrenches on the parts to get them to move.  Wow, what a pita.  After 10 years of living close to one another those parts did not want to separate.

Tie-rod end twoI had found the ABS sensor on the first stock corner to be stuck in place really well, so this time I decided to bypass removing it altogether and simply unclip the electrical line for this part on the Santorin car and bring the whole thing over along with the rest of the Santorin upright and attached parts.  This method worked quite a bit better.  I also was getting a good routine for capping off the brake line and not dripping brake fluid all over the place.  The retaining washer on the alignment pin for the suspension mounting bracket was still a bugger to get off, but at least I was expecting it this time.

Driver's corner post-op

Audi B5 S4 Information and Testing