Hello all, this afternoon we noticed a loud noise from the rear of our
'87 Vanagon 2.1L with auto. I recently had the engine replaced with a
rebuilt one (a few months ago) so I didn't think or hoped it wasn't that.
I pulled into the walmart parking lot and opened up the engine cover,
expecting to find something obvious. No such luck, it doesn't make the
grinding noise while the van is sitting still with the engine running,
only while moving and with the engine at around 3000 rpm or so. It also
makes a quiet clunking sound when slowing down. I can vary the noise or
even make it go away for a short while by reving the engine. I checked
the tranny fluid and engine oil. The tranny fluid was full although brown
instead of red. The engine oil was also fine.  It seemed a little
sluggish this morning taking off but since it otherwise ran fine I didn't
think anything about it. Could it be the CV joints or I wonder the
transmission/transaxle??

from Anthony Bailey (mailto:abailey@clas.net) on an ancient Power
Macintosh 7200/90 from Beautiful Southeast Missouri.