Crikey. I wish my brain could come up with less stupid stuff to deal with when I'm asleep, but no -- this morning I awoke in the middle of a dream in which I was searching for Mellow Yellow in a partially-empty mall parking lot. I hadn't even parked it very far from the store's entrance, but there I was, combing aisle after aisle of cars, in the rain, wondering when my family would start to wonder when I was gonna get home with that gallon of milk. IN OTHER NEWS, Mellow Yellow finally got a new muffler. The old one looked pretty much like rust lace. Now, it's so quiet that a couple of times when I was sitting at a light I had to look at the tach to see if the engine was running. Ernst muffler from Bus Depot, had it installed for $80 at Steve's Place in Bend, Ore. While the van was up on the lift he had another go at locating the source of the "thunk" sound that occurs (mainly but not only) in second gear (auto transmission) only when cruising on level pavement and just when the foot comes off the gas pedal. When the drive train unloads, there's this very audible "thunk" that sounds from under the vehicle. Ears say it's up front, but that can be misleading. Nothing found wrong with wheels, bearings, CV joints, motor mounts, tranny mounts, Canadian mounts, rear suspension, front suspension, veeblefetzer fittings, or the steering hawsers and levers. Rocking the vehicle fore and aft by hand causes the tranny's park pawl to click a bit, but that's all. It's a head-scratcher. A couple torn boots were found on the steering tackle up front. There's no avoiding getting those replaced. Will need to get the front end re-aligned after that. -- Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana") 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) Bend, OR KG6RCR |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.