Date:         Sun, 22 Oct 2006 22:38:59 -0400
Reply-To:     David Milo <dellaone@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Milo <dellaone@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Time to retest the viscous coupling?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Ahem, cough cough,

A slightly embarrassing tale of woe will ensue, having happened this
afternoon, and all my fault. I have a stock '87 Syncro van drive train, with
locking rear diff. Yes, I have the teenie weenie contact patch Continental
Vanco tires, 48 psi rear, 40psi up front.

I went to move my two thousand pound Cape Dory sailboat (on a trailer) as I
have done before into my garage this afternoon. I live in a neighborhood
with long backyards that meet at a common grass-covered alley. The alley
serves a few garages (including mine) at the back of the properties.

Fortunately (so much more now), we are good friends with the neighbors
across the way, so typically there is no problem with driving onto the
opposing backyard partially to position the trailer prior to backing into
the garage. The neighbor's yard has a slight downward pitch from the alley
towards their house and their garage (which is much closer to their house
than mine).

Long story short, after I had pulled the boat into the neighbor's yard, I
could not back up with the trailer hitched. The right rear wheel spun, but
nothing else. I unhitched the van, planning mentally to swing the trailer
around by hand and pull it out from the other direction. I pulled forward a
bit with the van and stopped, (big mistake). 4 inches of rain in the past
few days had made the yard a gumbo, and when I tried to pull forward again,
I just ended up digging in at the rear. Not counting that the front end had
sunk in 4 inches on it's own just sitting there. I tried pulling in the diff
lock, and my son watched both rear wheels spin, but we never saw either
front wheel spin. My father-in-laws D*dge 4X4 truck and a long chain later,
we got it extracted from the goo.

After turning the boat around by hand, we got the it in the garage with the
truck, and my wife and I spent a few hours filling in the ruts with clean
dirt and grass seed.

I realize that there are certain conditions that will simply stop 4 wheel
drive cold, with wet, mushy clay based soils near the top of the list. I've
seen it happen before with J*ep vehicles that didn't have mudder tires. I
was just surprised that the front wheels didn't spin at all. I will admit
that I didn't try too hard to spin my way out, (nothing above 1200 rpm) as
it was apparent I was only going to go down and not forward. Plus, the rear
tires were plugged with goo, just slimy discs cutting a groove.

When I first got this Syncro 2 years ago, I was able to hop a 2x4 using the
front wheels with the rear wheels suspended in the air (on a rolling jack)
at just above idle in g-gear. Last winter I could not make the rear end hang
out going around a snow covered right angle corner turn. I have a '91 Carat
to compare it to, and I know the Syncro's 4 wheel drive was effective last
winter. I still can tell that there is a slight amount of rolling resistance
when turning on hard pavement, more as the turn is increased, normal for a
Syncro as opposed to a 2 wheel drive van.

As soon as I can find the time, I will repeat the 2x4 test. Maybe time for a
new VC?

Cheers,

Dave