Date:         Tue, 24 Apr 2001 20:18:49 -0400
Reply-To:     Angus Gordon <agordon@bright.net>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Angus Gordon <agordon@bright.net>
Subject:      Re: Clunk After Shifting - a longish story with little Vanagon
              content
In-Reply-To:  <001101c0ccce$896b1700$81418bcd@n0e4e8>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

    Phaedra wrote:
>Odd thing is, I too have heard an occassional clunk--
>in the area of the undercarriage behind passenger seat.


Phaedra's clunking comments reminded me of a similar story from years ago...

Back when our kids were smaller and less numerous, I drove an old diesel
Rabbit. When the kid quantity reached three, I just added an extra seatbelt
to the back seat and we carried on. For vacations we could somehow just
manage to squeeze in all the camping equipment, clothes, stuffed animals,
diapers and so on required. Needless to say there was little extra room, so
child number four presented a challenge. Finances limited my options
somewhat (to say $200) but I had the fantastic bonus of having pretty much
free access to a local auto wrecking yard. In fact my diesel was a rebuilt
wreck from this yard.

First thoughts naturally gravitated to a stretched Rabbit, but fortunately
before I fired up the Sawzall, a gift came into the yard in the form of a
relatively new Chrysler mini-van which had been totaled. I dragged the van
to my shop and spent about a month rebuilding it. It's sometimes difficult
to tell what has been affected by a vehicle crash, for example this van had
oil dripping from the engine which I initially assumed came from the oil
pan. I thought perhaps I'd discover it was cracked, but when I investigated
I found the oil was coming from the ignition coil, which had a hole punched
in it!

Our vacation time was rapidly approaching, so the pressure was on to get
this vehicle ready in time for our planned trip to a friend's cottage in
Northern Ontario. Both the outer CV joint boots had been torn, but the CV
joints looked OK to me, so I elected to not even pull the driveshafts and
instead put new split boots on both sides. I intended to keep a close eye
on these, as the CV's were the most questionable part of the whole repair
job in my mind.

Off we went on our maiden voyage, vacation bound, with actual room to spare
inside. The van purred along, all of us unaccustomed to this level of plush
comfort and smooth ride. As the miles unfolded, I gradually relaxed and
started enjoying the drive, less and less concerned about mechanical
trouble. I was really grateful when we arrived with nary a hiccup, and I'm
sure even the kids were impressed that Dad didn't have to change the head
gasket under the pine trees this year.

Homeward bound I was feeling pretty good about this fancy new car, until
making a sweeping left hand turn I heard a clunk come from the right side
somewhere. Immediately I thought of those CV joints. I pulled over and
crawled underneath, checked the driveshafts. They seemed fine. We carried
on for a while, until a right hand turn again produced a definite clunk
from the right side. I stopped, checked the boots, made sure the bolts were
tight. Everything looked perfect. Worried now, I expanded my search. Five
minutes later I found the problem - a flashlight rolling around in a
storage drawer under the right seat!


================================
Angus Gordon                       '89 Carat
NW Ohio                            '86 Syncro