You might check to see if your CV bolts are secure. My van had a
clunking sound that sounded just like a bad CV. Turned out to be three
CV bolts were loose - the three remaining were insufficient to keep
motion out of the picture.

John Rodgers'
88 Gl driver

Art Beutler wrote:

>My 86 vanagon has recently developed a noise sounding like metal striking
>metal originating from the rear somewhere.  This rate of the striking noise
>is proportional to speed and it pretty much goes away when the clutch is
>engaged and sometimes at higher speeds.  Having had a look thorough previous
>postings for such noises, it is pretty likely that this is caused by a bad
>CV joint.
>
>I have not crawled under the vehicle yet but I have read that I should be
>able to find the bad CV joint by checking for fore and aft play; I will
>undertake this task tomorrow.  My main question is: how hard are these to
>change and how does one go about doing it.  The shop manual starts with the
>axle shaft already removed - is this a simple matter of loosening the bolts
>on either end and pulling it out or is there more to it?  Once the axle
>shaft is removed, the manual implies that a press is required to remove the
>old CV joints - is this really true?  Are there any alternatives?  If one
>gets past this point, are there any tricks to reassembly?
>
>Also, if there is no obvious cause of failure (ie damaged boot) of the bad
>CV joint, can the others be expected to last much longer or should I change
>them all?
>
>                                                                Thanks,
>
>                                                                Art Beutler
>
>
>