A week or so ago, I asked the list about a noise I was having and got
several great responses. Just wanted to give you an update . . .

Yesterday, we tightened the brake hubs as was suggested by someone and we
also drained and refilled the final drive (thanks for all those responses to
my questions about that). We were planning to rotate the tires front to back
also but ran out of time. I will be doing that fairly soon, though. I also
need to replace the front shocks pretty soon too as well as one of the tie
rods.

So, after we did those couple of things, I'm happy to report the noise is
now gone! Yay! I have no idea if it was brake hubs or the final drive but
judging from how disgusting the gear oil in the final drive was, I'm
thinking that was it. It was kinda low and we decided it best to just go
ahead and drain and refill with fresh. We cleaned up all the bolts and
what-not as well as put in a new pan gasket. We used a Valvolene
semi-synthetic gear oil that was recommended by the local VW shop. He said
it's what he uses in his '62 Bus.

I think I'm going to wait a few months to replace the tires as I think I'd
like to go to a bigger wheel - possibly 16 inch. The current tires do have
reinforced sidewalls and the load rating is within the recommended range for
the Vanagon. The folks at the VW shop in town said they should be fine for a
while - they're fairly new anyway.

Be blessed,
~Annie