Last week I sheared off the bolt that holds the steering rack in place on my Audi a6, while trying to chase down a rattle. Had to take that to the pros. So that's been in the shop and as a result, I've been driving the 944 to work since Monday. Only other car, and I've got to admit it's fun running up against the boost on the highway and doing 500' burnouts before pulling into the lot at work. (yeah I know, but I'm way past grown up, over the hill and work at a building full of medical scientists who look at me like I'm hellboy or something, so that's kind of a tickle for me)

So... I had an annoying rattle with the hatch, and it wouldn't stay up, so I changed the struts. This was great! Until I closed it for the 2nd time. Immediately, the glass seperated from the frame! Excellent. Can't wait to take that fuker out and seperate it from the rest of the frame to reseal.

Next, the hatch kept opening on it's own, so I started taking out the pins to replace them with stainless items I'd brought a while back from Rennbay. Driver's side came out with Ease. New pin in and that's a good start. Couldn't get passenger side to move, so hit with PB blaster. Things are looking up.

Now drive to/from work involves several stops to put the hatch back down! What fun on the NJ turnpike!

So, now I'm back home today, and attach some vicegrips to the retaining nut on 2nd pin. It turns! All the way down. Excellent news. Next, I put the vice grips on the head of the pin, and guess what, it turns!

It turns again. I'm home free. I can go to work without stopping to close the hatch every funny bump. This is gonna be great. WRONG. One more turn, and the pin shears off. There's 1/8" of nut remaining and I can't even get the needle nose visegrips to stick. Also, the Torx drivers I got from rennbay won't go but .1mm into the little black block that retains the pin, so I've got that going for me.

Any advice the folks on the board might give would be greatly appreciated. Maybe urinating on the tires will help?

 

i thought the bolts for the hatch pin assembly thingy was a cheesehead, not a torx, i've done that same thing. after you get it apart and taken out, take off the receiving end get them on a workbench, clean the crud out and lube them up, it will do wonders. also, try just finding someone parting a car and get a good condition used one, thats what i did, $100. got a discount for picking up a tranny for him on my way to ohio

dont feel bad though i broke my cam tower. YES the ACTUAL TOWER ITSELF, 0* weather and little patience has lots of power, enough to break the aluminum casting (i kept the tower, lol)

 

Thanks Andrew.

You are right, it is a cheesehead. I was able to tap the m6 in with a hammer and get them loose. Once I had the piece out, I was able to drill out the remainder of the old pin out, followed by the insert. I made a bit of a mess, but using the the old pin from the other side as a 'tap and die' rethread enough to get the new pin in from the bottom end. Put it all back together, san the locknut, but at leas my hatch will stay shut. (I hope!)

While I was in the garage, I decided the hazard light switch was loose and when glueing it to the trim snapped off the inner tab! Good thing you can't see it behind the HVAC controls..

hatch pin 0
vice grips/drill/vice/workbench/pbblaster/m6 driver/socket wrench/13mm crescent and raw thumbs 1




Also blew the clock, but thankfully that was just a blade fuse replacement.