Katy,

You've already taken some of that mechanic's time, and he has diagnosed your
noise problem and offered a price that seemed reasonable to you. In the interest
of fairness why not let him do that work and let your husband perform all future
repairs he feels he can handle.

Garrett Adams
83.5 Adventurewagen GL
Stockton, California

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of Katy
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2000 6:20 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: To be or Not to be/bearings

Hi again,

Well as I said I went to the shop, where I met Chuck,  thinking I might
have to replace the rear seal that had just been done less than a month
ago and have the crank micro'd/shimmed for end play.  But it seems, that
the oil leak is so slight it's not worth doing at this point.  Would
take it back to the original Mech. that did it...but he's in Florida and
I'm in Iowa.  Not quite worth the 1400 mile drive :o)   Hubby didn't
want to mess with THAT project to begin with and told me to take it in.

 While I was there I mentioned a little noise I'd been hearing and
didn't know if it was the tire tread sound on the road or a front
bearing. (praying the whole time it wasn't the transmission) So Kevin,
the VW mechanic (really nice guy) took her for a spin.  (YIKES-he drove
out of there like the flag just dropped on the Indy 500!!)  My poor
baby.  Anyway,  Got back and said it needed a R front wheel bearing.
Would get me in Wed and out the door in about an hour for under $100.
Sounds reasonable to me.

So......here comes the good part.  I get home and hubby crankily says
"order the parts and I'll do it and be done in less than an hour".
(hubby is also a Mechanic by trade for his day job, albeit big trucks
not VW's)  Now....I don't want to lose this rare find of a savvy VW
vanagon mechanic by pissing him off and not having him do the job.
But.....I'd like to  buy the parts myself in addition  to buying a
Bentley and having hubby do the work (with me helping, of course :o)
for the same price.   And.....saving the Professional VW man for any
tricky stuff that needs to be done in the future.   Also now might be
able to afford the AC fix or a new side door bug screen.....

Looking for the wisdom the list has to offer........
Is there anything unusual about doing a Vanagon  front wheel bearing
replacement or special tools ?  Hubby said something about he'd do the
inside and outside bearings plus seal.  Jeez if he screwed it up I'd be
unfit to live with for a month.

Cheers,

Katy
89 Westy "Jezebel"