Date:         Sat, 2 Feb 2002 21:09:25 -0500
Reply-To:     Adam Brooks <adambrooks@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Adam Brooks <adambrooks@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject:      Vibration
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Help!!!

My '86 Syncro recently developed a vibration that has me baffled.

I first noticed it on a road trip of about 200 miles round trip. It started
like a tire vibration and got progressively worse.

I can only describe it as a driveline vibration, which shook the entire
vehicle. It seemed to be independent on things like whether the clutch was
engaged or disengaged, and seemed to worsen the slower the vehicle went,
with the most severe shaking occurring at less than 20 mph.

As an experiment, I engaged and disengaged the rear diff lock, and found an
empty parking lot and made tight turns. The problem seems to manifest itself
in straight line driving and disappears in a turn.

I also coasted down an incline in neutral both forward and backward, with
the vibration present both directions. I cant feel it specifically in the
steering wheel or the brake pedal, but it does seem to transfer somewhat
into the clutch pedal. In raising the vehicle off the ground, there seems to
be an excessive amount of drivetrain noise and a seemingly harmonic
vibration from the driveshaft.

I have about 5000 miles on a Tiico conversion, and about 35,000 miles on a
factory rebuilt tranny. I haven't done anything to the car other than
replaced the front brake pads recently, and suspected that to be an issue,
and replaced them again to no avail.

I even checked the wheel balance and rotated the tires, no change. Any
thoughts, comments or directions would be greatly appreciated.


Adam Brooks
'57 European Type 2 Standard
'59 European Type 1
'86 Westy Syncro (Tiico-ized) "der Uberwagen"