Date:         Sun, 30 Nov 1997 23:28:17 -0800
Reply-To:     Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon mailing list <Vanagon@Gerry.SDSC.EDU>
From:         Malcolm Holser <mholser@ADOBE.COM>
Subject:      Viscous coupling

When I bought my DC, it had a bad VC (and we knocked $2000 off the asking
price).  I *finally* got around to fixing it today.

Some PO (probably not the dealer I got it from) had simply removed the
VC.  Hopefully it was bad, and they had not defrauded the fellow I got
my truck from.

Whatever.  There was simply no VC.  The dealer had had the truck for
a number of years, but never used it for anything off-road, and in
SoCal, it did not have any snow (or rust!) opportunity.  His lack of
Syncro-knowledge seemed profound, and he did not believe me when I
pronounced his 4WD system inoperative (we left, he apparently had it
checked out, we negotiated).

Now it works fine.  The job was fairly easy.  This VC is not as aggressive
as the one in my Kombi -- there is no "scrubbing" obvious in the tight
turns, until I do about three circles.  It does appear to be functioning
properly.  Scrubbing is a sure sign the VC is functioning, not scrubbing,
however, is not a sure sign it has failed.  Most of the failures
I've heard about were ones where the VC locked, and the vehicle was not
driveable -- where one would be tempted to remove the VC (this works well,
BTW).  I had been assured that the *other* failure, where the VC simply spun
was possible due to oil contamination.  This would be a benign failure, where
the front wheels simply would not join the fun, as several recent posts have
alluded to.

Now, however, I still have no experience with this sort of failure.  I can
assure the list that removal of the entire VC does exhibit this kind of
behaviour (but the bus will drive just fine in 2WD!).  We need a poll as
to the modes of failure, and reasonable tests for benign failures.  As
of tonight, it appears I have never experienced a failure -- just a missing
in action.  Anybody else?

Malcolm