Date:         Fri, 19 Apr 96 14:00 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         khooper@wsp1.wspice.com (Ken Hooper)
Subject:      68 Noise update/Hubcap problem


A few of you might remember my 68 Mystery Noise; the loud low-frequency
hum-moan that occured at high speeds and was driving me plumb slap nuts.
Just in case this happens to anybody else:

A simple tire rotation took care of it. Joel Walker had written and
suggested this, along with about a dozen other people suggesting different
things (thanks, everybody). I thought it unlikely, so I went on bloodying
my knuckles for two weeks to no avail trying to fix things that might be
causing the noise (wheel bearings, crawling aroud looking for esoteric
hidden bushings, tightening everything I could find, &c.). I even bought a
stethoscope to listen to stuff with.

A few days ago I had the wheels off to paint them and, remembering what
Joel said, I rotated them when I put them back on. The noise disappeared
instantly and completely.

Joel says radials do funny things sometimes as they wear. He learned it
from a professional tire guy and didn't believe it either at first. But in
at least these two instances, his and mine, simple wear can cause a noise
like this. Thanks Joel!

Now, this next is a little thing, I suppose, but it's aggravating and I'm
sort of at a loss:

After I painted the wheels I got new hubcaps to replace the disgraceful
ones that were on there. The new ones are slippery for having new chrome
where the old ones had lots of rust and dents for traction; every single
one of my wheels is missing one of those little tabs that hold the caps on.
The hubcaps keep flying off. Railroad tracks do it every time.

So what do you do about those little tabs? Drill the rivets out and put new
tabs on? Are the tabs available? Seems like the more I try to bend the
remaining 4/5 so they grab better, it just makes things worse. I don't have
a welder.

--Ken
  68 Westy, 71 Bus