Welcome to the club, Mark. These whines and noises will drive you nuts there are so many potential causes, etc. May I offer a piece of advice. Find a mechanic who KNOWS vanagons, preferably someone who only works on vanagons and VWs. He or she will be able to tell you much more after a 10 minutes test drive than 2 weeks of sepculating on the list and on your own will.

Tim Smith kindly responded to my despondent plea for help with my tranny/drive line noise. He had an excellent suggestion that would be helpful to everyone. What we need is help from those several gifted listmembers out there who really know transaxles/differentials/cv joints/wheel bearings, etc. (i.e., the pros who have a developed knowledge base from years of working on vanagons on a daily basis...well, I guess a lot of us would quailfy there, but you know what I mean.)

We need a list of what noise/symptoms various components make when they are beginning to fail, especially for the syncro. For example: noises/symptoms for (1) transaxle main shaft bearing, (2) ring and pinion, (3) Pinion bearing, (4) 3-4 slider hub, (5) cross-country housing (if any), (6) center drive shaft, (7) CV joints, (8) wheel bearings, (9) motor mounts, (10) exhaust touching other components, etc. [ I heve limited knowledge here... don't even know exactly what components should be on the list]

This is important for syncro owners for several reasons. If you continue to drive with some of these parts going, you will do severe additional damage to other components of the transaxle. For example, if you continue to drive with a worn pinion bearing, you will damage the ring and pinion gears. Big deal you say? You should see the prices of some of these components. Parts alone can take you over $1000 no problem. Not only that, you cannot get cores for these anymore. I have heard that a rebuildable...not rebuilt, but rebuildable... core can cost $900, if you're lucky enough to find one. If you continue driving with certain components going, you are going to need one.

The pros who help us out here could benefit also. A list posted in the archive and under FAQ or something on one or more of the sites such as Coyotes would generate business for those who do this professionally. Their contribution to the symptoms list could be acknowledged right on the list with phone numbers, etc. And some of these same individuals who get hounded repeatedly with the same questions could just refer people to the symptoms list, or others could.

I am already overwhelmed with the head survey and the bios for the trip to the end of the world or I would volunteer. Any takers?

steve

Mark Rokus wrote:

> Alright Syncronauts, Q & A time.. > > As a new owner of a syncro, I'm trying to determine if I have a > terminal > problem or not. When my transmission is unloaded, (coasting) there is > a > whine coming out of the main transmission. Can't find a problem > looking > at the oil. Maintenance records indicate good attention. PO said the > problem started after new tires ( all 4 ). This whine is not coming > from > them. Any throttle and the noise goes away. Speed dependant and > neutral dosen't help. Seems to me to limit it to final drive > components. Any thoughts? > Thanks > Mark Rokus