On Apr 4, 2005 7:34 AM, Kim Brennan <kimbrennan@mac.com> wrote:
> Which portion of the skid plate, Ben? That around the engine, that
> between the front and rear diffs? Or the front section? (note to
> non-Doka owners, the front section is different than the tire carrier
> typically found on passenger Vanagons, it really is a skid plate....
>
> The section between the transmissions would lead me to think that the
> vibration was in the drive shaft, but if you were just sitting still
> that shouldn't be the issue.
>
> The rear section is just tying the engine carrier to the middle
> section. If that's heavily vibrating when connected, the vibration is
> still there when not connected, it just isn't getting transmitted all
> the way forward.
>
> That would mean engine mounts might need to be examined.
>
>

Kim,

It is indeed just the rear skidplate. You are corrected that my doka
has a front skidplate in place of the tire carrier (spare tire is
under rear bench).

Anyway, there does not seem to be much vibration from the engine when
the skidplate is off. Somehow this "sympathetic" vibration only works
it's magic when everything is stuck together. I will re-examine the
engine mounts as it is possible that the skidplate is creating some
pressure to change something back there. I would have though that they
changed the engine mounts when they installed the new engine. I'll
have to check.

BenT