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Date:         Mon, 6 Nov 2006 13:47:05 -0900
Reply-To:     Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
Subject:      Re: Scary Front shaking '90 syncro westie
In-Reply-To:  <2163811a0611060837s750378e8vf49cb258a26bc6ee@mail.gmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

We had a similar but less severe occurrence with our `87 Westy Syncro. We were cruising slowly along the waterfront campground in Seward, AK looking for a place to camp when severe wheel shake occurred. I pulled over and inspected the front suspension, steering, etc, but saw nothing wrong. On our next pass through the campground I heard a distinct metallic sound and then a loud bang. I got out and looked under the front to see our left outer Cv joint had grenaded. As it was 5:30PM on a Saturday afternoon in a small town that does not carry Vanagon parts I ended up pulling the inner joint and shaft loose removing all but the outer joint housing, and dropping the drive shaft from the transmission to the front differential allowing us to finish our trip and deal with the repairs when we got home. As we had our van out of storage for only a few weeks when this happened and it had been lubed and inspected two weeks before I suspect that we may have torn the CV boot on a rock the previous weekend when we drove the Denali Highway. I am looking into finding a set of the outer boot protectors that European models came with in hopes of avoiding this issue in the future.

Mark in AK

----- Original Message ----- From: Angus Gordon <birdworks@GMAIL.COM> Date: Monday, November 6, 2006 7:50 am Subject: Re: Scary Front shaking '90 syncro westie To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> Rick, > > Several years back I encountered exactly the same symptoms and > eventuallytraced it to my right front outer CV joint. I would > strongly suspect a CV > joint in your case. The bad news is that it will act up more and more > frequently as it wears. The good news is that the vibration stops > when the > joint fails and you spread a trail of ball bearings all over the road! > > Angus > > '86 Syncro > '89 Carat > > > > > I'm driving my syncro westie straight down the interstate > cruising at > > 65 mph, suddenly the steering wheel begins to shimmy dramatically, > > violent enough that I'm looking for the shoulder fast. >


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