[Vwdiesel] EJ's Bounce

[Val Christian]

E.J.,

Firgive me, I haven't been following this thread closely, but have read
a few of the notes.  FWIW, several times in my career as a shady tree 
mechanic, I've encountered very strange acting suspensions.  In one case
a friend of my wife's had spent two months and thousands (yes, thousands)
of dollars to try to resolve her vibration problem.

Once I had a Rabbit, either the 79 or the 80, I forget which right now,
which acted very strangely on the road.  I went after CV joints, replaced 
the front struts, realigned things a couple of times (toe-in bar and 
carpenter's level with shims, and a hand calculator), and couldn't
find the problem.  The rear struts seemed just fine.  Since I had replaced
just about everything in the car (>100K miles) I decided to do the 
rear struts.  I suppose I did it just for something to do.  The bottom 
line was that replacement of the struts did the magic.  The suspension 
worked just fine after that, and the wandering and bouncing down the road 
disappeared.  It was ABSOLUTELY dramatic.  The old struts seemed OK, but
the net effect was quite significant.

So the girls were over one evening, and I was running off to the airport
to make myself scarse.  I was detained, told the story, and coyly mumbled
something about "why didn't they replace the rear struts?"  A week later
the case of import (Holland) beer showed up.  

After impressing myself with my diagnostic capability, learned on just one
case, and then confirmed by another, I've spread the word.  A couple of 
other car owners have gotten back to me after a similar suggestion.

In your case, I haven't heard the full story, so this may have already been 
tried.  I figured the story was worth passing on to the rest of the 
group.  

Val





> >Hi Gang,
> >Last report was low on transmission fluid and suspected 5th gear damaged
> >(ruined?).  Now a strange twist to the tale.  Assuming that the 5th gear was
> >damaged beyond repair, I loaded my extra transmission in the bed just behind
> >the cab and took it to the local mechanic to change the output flange seals.
> >When he test drove the car, all of the symptoms of violent steering wheel
> >movement and drumming sound at speeds above 45mph were gone .  I drove it
> >home with the extra transmission still in the bed with no symptoms.  Still
> >have the transmission in the bed, have been driving the PU for three days
> >with no symptoms and am afraid to remove it in case the symptoms might
> >return.  What is going on here?  Is it something to do with the rear axle or
> >what?
> >E.J.