Date:         Sat, 18 Jan 97 15:37:36 EST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Sean Bartnik <sbart7kb@www.mwc.edu>
Subject:      alternators & CBs

Hey all,
I'm posting this to both lists because these are relatively general
questions.

First:  A few days ago I noticed a screeching sound (low-pitched, like a
metal on metal sound) coming from the engine somewhere when I first
started it up.  This is an '81 Vanagon, 2000cc air-cooled engine.  Today
I investigated further and I've isolated the sound as coming from the
alternator.  I can't tell if it's the pulley rubbing on the housing or
if it's inside the alternator.  The sound disappears when the engine
warms up.  So is it alt. bearings or something?  Is my alternator on the
way out or is the very cold weather lately (single digits last night)
having an effect on the grease (or whatever lube) in the alternator?
The alternator has been charging normally, no red light on or anything
like that.  Any ideas?

Next, I need to get a real CB antenna.  I had one of those clip-on rain
gutter mount jobbies from Wal-Mart because I couldn't find a place to
mount a real one.  Well, the Wal-Mart jobby is rusting all to hell
already (only been on there a couple months) so i removed it before the
rust spread to my raingutter.  The problem is that I still haven't been
able to think of a good place to mount a CB antenna.  If this were a
regular Vanagon I'd just use a magnet-mount antenna on the roof but this
is a Westy.  No magnet mount here.  I was looking at mounting it on the
rear bumper but there's no way to mount it so that it doesn't interfere
with the rear hatch.  I would have to mount it on the plastic end cap if
I wanted to get in the back of the van without removing the antenna.

In short, I'm out of ideas.  I know a lot of you Westy drivers have CBs
so where did you mount the antenna?

Thanks,
Sean