Bernie, you can check your wheel bearings without even jacking up the van,
sometimes.  Just grab the top of the tire and 'reef" on it really hard, like
you are trying to rip the wheel off.  If you feel any real movement, then
you might want to look at the bearings more closely.
  Don Hanson

On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Tom Hargrave <thargrav@hiwaay.net> wrote:

> If you are going to jack up each front wheel & listen you also need to
> check
> for free play. A bad bearing can be loose & sound fine with no load.
>
> Tom
> www.towercooler.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
> neil n
> Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 12:27 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: On the road.................a couple of issues!
>
> Bernie.
>
> Your engine was rebuilt recently so I'd check coolant sensor wire at
> engine.
>
> Front end noise; does it happen driving in a straight line, cornering,
> when braking, or all the time?
>
> At the very least you could jack up each front wheel, spin wheel and
> listen.
>
> Neil.
>
> On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 8:10 AM, Bernie <berniej@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > *Having a couple of things that popped up yesterday on my 85 Westy.*
> > *First thing temperature gauge dropped to almost nothing.*
> > *Always would be consistently just below half before and now basically
> not
> > responding*
> > *or responding on very intermittent basis.*
> > *Second issue is a noise that seems to be coming from front of vehicle.*
> > *Don't know how to describe other than a noise produced by friction of
> some
> > sort.*
> > *Could this be wheel bearings?*
>
>
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engine
> s
>