[Vwdiesel] Thankful for simple solution

[Libbybapa at wmconnect.com]

After a week of decent cold (lows of 0°F and highs of 25°F) it warmed up to a 
couple of days of dumping snow.  Since the snow it has warmed up even more in 
the last three days (highs of 50°F).  Day before yesterday I took my vanagon 
work van out to the next job I will be working on. 1 1/2 miles on a county 
dirt road.  The melting snow had made the road pretty bad.  Deep potholes and 
eroded rivers.  I was at the job for a coupla hours.  On the way back I noticed a 
pretty loud clunk, clunk coming from the driver's side front end.  It was 
especially pronounced when starting and stopping.  With great trepidation I drove 
the van home.  There were not any untoward performance characteristics, just 
the very disconcerting front end noise.  When I got home I started checking 
things out.  I checked the front tire and steering.  Everything seemed tight.  
In the course of investigation I found that just shaking the van vigorously 
would make the loud knocking noise.  It seemed to be coming from the steering 
somewhere in front of/ below the passenger cabin.  I removed the two grilles, but 
couldn't see the knocking part.  I quit that night thinking I'd work on it 
again in the morning.  Yesterday, I got up and started working on it.  First, I 
dropped the spare tire to get a better view.  When I went to shake the van, no 
more noise.  I thought, something must have been knocking with the spare tire 
assembly.  I went on to doing other things.  When I went back to the van a 
coupla hours later to put everything back together, I shook it again.  The loud 
knocking had returned.  Thankfully the day had warmed up nicely, and working 
outside was a pleasure. Questioning my sanity I began looking again.  I removed 
the driver's side blinker for a better view.  I removed the air deflector for 
the radiator.  Still, everything looked good.  I went underneath and removed 
the widshield wahing fluid reservior.  When I was lowering it I felt the large 
chunk of ice in it go clunk, clunk against the side of the reservior.  Now I 
just have to find what I did with all the fasteners. :-)  At least I didn't 
remove the steering rack, or dashboard. :-)
Andrew