Hi Jim,

> DO NOT tamper with the bomb!
> It is not called a bomb because it looks like one, it's called a bomb
> beacause it IS one.
> Before removing it you must make sure it is discharged by pumping the brake
> pedal several times with the engine off until the pedal goes hard. If you
> don't, you will find out why it is called a bomb as you look at the stump
> that used to be your hand!
> I would advise you not to try to take it apart, or poke anything into it for
> the same reason.

Thanks a lot for your warnings. I will defenitely keep them in mind.

However, I think I didn't make clear what I intend to do. I will try
again:

- I am assuming that more than 50% of the old Audis in South Africa
drive around with a broken bomb (as explained in detail in my earlier
message).

- If this is the case, more than 50% of the bombs on the scrap yards
will be bad as well.

- When I go to a scrap yard to get one, I would obviously like to get
a good one first time round. They refund the money if I return it, but
I still don't like the idea to get one, to put it in, to take it out
again and to bring it back.

==> I need some way to destinguish between a good and a bad one on the
scrap yard. And that is where my questions started.

I thought of two ways:

1.) If there is anything which tells me whether it is the original one
or whether it is a factory-refurbished one, I have a starting point.
The latter has obviously a much higher chance to be a good one than
the first one.

2.) If there is anything which I can see, test or whatsoever on a
scrap bomb, it would help. That's where the "poke into it" came from.
My idea was that if the bomb lost all of it's gas, the devide between
fluid and gas might not have moved back in the end. My idea was:
- take a scrap one
- look into it or stick something (a small wooden stick for example)
into it just to see whether this deviding part is further back than on
a good one. I obviously don't want to leave the stick in there.
Carefully sticking a small wooden stick into a bomb which wasn't used
for months will certainly not make it explode.

So if anyone has an idea on how to perform a test on a scrap bomb,
please let me know.

In the mean time I did some more research on 1.) above:

I have two Audis, one 1989 and one 1988. Both are type44 and both are
called "500" here. I believe the older one corresponds to the 5k and
the "newer" one to the 100. Anyway, the bomb works fine on the older
one and not at all on the newer one (which sort of confrims my 50%
assumption, just with a very small sample). I lifted them both up a
bit and climbed underneeth to see whether I could find any
differences. And I did:

Model No:
good: 443 612 061 H
bad: 443 612 061 B
--> I don't think the H and B has much significance, but I might be
wrong

No under the model no:
good: 032-4317-182-541/75
bad: 032-4317-052-541/80
I guess these are seriel numbers and don't think the differences are
siginifcant.

Extra letters on the round part oposite the pipes:
good: "FS"
bad: "A4"
no idea, what they mean.

Additional number:
Now, this could very well be significant:
good: A bit to the right of what I think is the serial number, the
good one has "087/EE" It is not engraved as deep as the serial number,
it must have been done with a different machine.
bad: There is nothing like this.

My thoughts: The good one is refurbished, and the additional number
was added when it was refurbished. If this is true, it would help to
look on the scrap yard for one whith similar additional numbers.

However, a test as in 2.) above would still help, since even a
refurbished one might have gone past its life time.

Thanks for any help,

Christoph

P.S. I have taken a few photos of those numbers, if anyone is
interested to put them on a web page, please let me know.

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