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1st time VW owner lookin for advice
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thewookie
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Joined: January 25, 2010
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:11 am    Post subject: 1st time VW owner lookin for advice Reply with quote

Hi y'all! New VW owner and Samba member, here...

I recently bought my first VW -- an '82 Vanagon GL. The previous owner gave it lots of love (it was their 5th owned) and dubbed it "The Wookie".

Full disclosure: Currently, I know next to nothing about VWs or auto repair in general... but I'm looking forward to changing that.

Ok, the only repair I've needed to get done (in the couple months I've had it) is replacing the clutch slave cylinder. I've already made trips from KC to Chicago, St. Louis, Omaha, and Indianapolis, and The Wookie has held up great!

However, about a week ago, I started hearing a "knocking/coughing" sound that seems to be sourced around the back wheel on the passenger side (though, I don't think it has anything to do with the wheel). It's most pronounced in when I'm engaged in lower gears, but it's still subtly there when I'm coasting in neutral. Also, when I'm stationary and rev the engine, the sound isn't pronounced (or even there) like it is when I'm moving...

I'm sure it could be lots of things, but with my descprition, does anyone think they could help me narrow it down? I've found a good VW mechanic in town (KC) -- Brown's Automotive -- so if I can't figure it out on my own, I'm glad to have a good fallback. When I mentioned it to them, they thought it could be an exhaust issue, or potentially a bad head?

FYI, the owner before the owner's I bought from converted it from FI to carbeurated. The carbs were tuned about 4 months ago, I think.

Any advice will be much appreciated! Smile Really glad to have a great community like The Samba for help!

Thanks,
David
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peasant
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi,

Could maybe be axles/CVs.


did you do the slave cylinder yourself?
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Emeritusx
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am up by the airport... I also have an 82 air cooled... is yours gas or diesel?

About the click, is it worse when you turn in a specific direction?
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NorBullitt
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi, and welcome to the VW-world Smile

Its hard to diagnose without feeling/hearing the sound.
But it could be one of the cv-joints on the driveshaft I guess.
You could always jack it up, and grab the driveshaft with the biggest pair of wise-grips you got. Move it around to check the play of the inner joints.
Then hold it still and try to rotate the wheel to check the outer joints.
Check sure to check both the left and right shaft, and see if one stands out.

Or does it feel like the problem is engine-related?
With powerloss when it happens.....
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morymob
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh you poor sucker, RUN LIKE HELL!!!!
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MarkWard
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Congratulations on your purchase. Eventually you will have removed every part, repacked or replaced it. It is the nature of the beast. The more you can do yourself the more money you will save and peace of mind you will earn. CV joints are part of regular maintenance. Some subscribe to using a needle to inject grease into the boots. My choice would be to pull both axles, clean the joints, see if you have some serious pitting on the working surfaces, replace those, repack the ones that are just shinny. You can also rotate the CV's extending their life by changing the direction they turn. New boots and a quality grease and you will be good for 60K on the axles. While you have the CV axle out and the van jacked up, spin the bearing with the wheel on. It should be quiet. Maybe a slight drag sound from the rear shoes. Also, grab the tire top and bottem and rock, there should be no wobble. Also make sure no one put some gravel behind the hubcap. Cheers.
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RCB
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome aboard "thewookie", sounds as if you have gotten yourself a fine Van, kudos to the PO for maintaining it. Im sure you have read up on the importance of replacing the fuel lines so Im not going to mention here nor am I going to post any pictures of Vans/Westys on fire because someone forgot to replace them every 5,000 or so miles.

The CV joint might be going wonky, check out the condition of the boot/boots and if they are split at the seams its a good idea to replace the joint and the boot.

Do yourself a favor and stay way away from the Made in China stuff.

rsxsr mentioned the CV'joints are good for roughly 60,000 miles. Aside from neglect in maintenance....what might cause a CV joint to fail.
Replaced my older CV's with the Lobro's about 28,000 miles ago. Can one expect a 60,000 mile use from them if properly maintained ?
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MarkWard
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your results may vary. I am old school in that I prefer to replace individual joints rather than refurbished or rebuilt axles. I know the history of my shafts and don't want to turn them in as cores. The obvious, would be a broken boot causes the grease to get thrown out and dirt and water to get in accelerating the wear. Getting the joints properly greased. I grease the ramps, assemble the joint and pack grease from the backside of the joint till it is obviously coming out the front and then pack grease from the front back the other way. I am moving the joint through its positions while I am forcing the grease through. I leave the boot dry as well as the transmission flange. I use a good quality grease as well. I don't think 60K would be unreasonable. It is a dirty job. Probably one of the dirtiest jobs when done properly. If the boots were intact, you could rotate them at 30K by removing them and flipping end to end. This transfers the working load to the opposite ramp.
Years ago we had a customer on vacation. CV's were clacking like crazy just driving around the lot. Pulled them down, they were all pitted inner and outer races. Customer did not have the money for new CV's at the dealer cost. Asked me to clean and repack them. I offered to rotate them as well. Even with all the pitting, the axles were quiet as a church mouse after I was done. Regards.
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heidi85ho
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had an interesting situation this year that may or may not have importance with regard to your mysterious "coughing". I would notice the same kind of coughing or "throat rattle" as i accelerated or downshifted. Barely there when idling but still present. After much thinking(and many glasses of wine) my friends and i decided to check it out. What we found was startling. The catalytic converter element had come apart and sent pieces into the muffler. My old girl seemed to be trying to cough these out! I took off the muffler and shook the hell out of it,(forever it seemed like) breaking up the pieces of converter element, which fell out in the driveway. No more coughing. We have since termed this operation, the westy heimlich!! Hope this helps!!!!
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morymob
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

rsxsr wrote:
Your results may vary. I am old school in that I prefer to replace individual joints rather than refurbished or rebuilt axles. I know the history of my shafts and don't want to turn them in as cores. The obvious, would be a broken boot causes the grease to get thrown out and dirt and water to get in accelerating the wear. Getting the joints properly greased. I grease the ramps, assemble the joint and pack grease from the backside of the joint till it is obviously coming out the front and then pack grease from the front back the other way. I am moving the joint through its positions while I am forcing the grease through. I leave the boot dry as well as the transmission flange. I use a good quality grease as well. I don't think 60K would be unreasonable. It is a dirty job. Probably one of the dirtiest jobs when done properly. If the boots were intact, you could rotate them at 30K by removing them and flipping end to end. This transfers the working load to the opposite ramp.
Years ago we had a customer on vacation. CV's were clacking like crazy just driving around the lot. Pulled them down, they were all pitted inner and outer races. Customer did not have the money for new CV's at the dealer cost. Asked me to clean and repack them. I offered to rotate them as well. Even with all the pitting, the axles were quiet as a church mouse after I was done. Regards.
Move from side to side not flip ends and keep on the same side.
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reluctantartist
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Check to see if they are a name brand joints or one of the OE brand joints. Some of the after market joints are not machined correctly and allow the axle too much movement...you have to use thrust washers on these as they allow the axles too much movement. Welcome to Vanagon ownership.
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thewookie
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks all for your advice! You're a cool community to offer so much feedback to a new member... 'preciate that.

vanagonjetta - seems like you're not the only one thinking CVs/axles. and, i did not replace the slave cylinder myself. i don't have the tools -- hardware or know-how at this point.

emeritusx - cool, i'm about 10 mins north of the city on I-35. the wookie's an air-cooled, and nah... the clicking doesn't seem to be worse one way over the other. uphill maybe more than down (but also, when i'm in neutral, it's all but gone).

NorBullit - thanks for the welcome Smile i'm happy to be here. i'm gonna take your advice to check on the inner and outer joints. and no, i don't think it's engine related, because i'm not feeling any power loss...

i'm too outta shape to run, morymob!

rsxsr - thanks for lots of good thoughts. it'll be useful when i'm going through it.

thanks RCB - and yeah, the PO does deserve props. actually, i haven't read anything about the fuel lines being replaced. so i guess i should take heed! i gotta get a good jack...

it may need a westy heimlich heidi85ho!

and thanks for the last bit of advice reluctantartist.

i got a lot to chew on, here. again, it's much appreciated and i'll let you know how it goes!
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NorBullitt
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good luck, and keep us posted.
Theres always the chance that we are all completely wrong,
and the problem is something else.
Got any pictures of your van?
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thewookie
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


The Wookie!
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RCB
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice color scheme. Very Happy
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NorBullitt
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cool. I like the look of the aircooled ones. Specially when they are kept stock....
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reluctantartist
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Air-cooled's can be a lot of fun.
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Emeritusx
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thats a nice lookin' bus.... Here is my fleet... I am up on 92 highway, you live in Kearney? You gotta take it to the local show this year, its a helluva lot of fun


Link


Since this movie, I have gotten rid of the dodge van and the thing is orange and fun...
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thewookie
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks guys.

I ended up taking The Wookie in, and the shop -- Brown's Automotive in Kansas City (on Prospect) -- replaced both rear axles to fix the problem. They replaced one, and it didn't fix the issue (so may've misdiagnosed?) and then the other... but they got great deals on the axles (for a little over $100/ea).

So, that fixed the clanky boot/cv/whatever else it might've been.

But now, I'm told I've lost a significant amount of compression in 2 of the cyclinders -- they're at 75 instead of 125 -- and it feels like it came out of nowhere. They said I must've overheated at some point, but I didn't feel like it was running as poorly when I brought it in to the shop (for the axles) as it does now!

Maybe it's because it sat for a couple weeks... I doubt that. At any rate, I'm supposed to drive to Austin tomorrow and not feeling real confident about it.

Any thoughts re: the compression/cyclinders is much appreciated. The Wookie's got me in a little bind!

P.S. emeritusx, I live about 10 minutes north of downtown in KC. Nice fleet you got there! I'd love to take the Wookie up to the local show if I can keep it running till then!
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MarkWard
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't believe it will leave you stranded. A good road trip and then check the compression when the engine is hot. You might find the numbers improve. A compression test only tells part of the story. The shop should do a cylinder leak down and then tell you where the leakage is. This is a common diagnosis tool.
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