Except for the rubber smell, I would suspect a CV joint about to commit
suicide.

Dave Milo

On Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 4:11 PM, Robert Fisher <garciasghostvw@gmail.com>wrote:

> I told my wife she jinxed me... the van sprung a leak from the front
> radiator feed hose; I patched it, and that held until I could get a pair of
> hoses in from Van Cafe and replace both radiator hoses. Then a piece of
> plastic got caught in the impeller of the dishwasher drain pump. That's
> four
> hours of my life I'll never get back. That's when my wife said "These
> things
> come in threes; I wonder what's next?" I told her to hush, but apparently
> the damage was done.
>
> Today she was driving the van into town and it began to feel to her like it
> was slowing down on its own (from about 60-ish), It picked back up, then
> slowed down again. It began to vibrate badly so she started to pull over.
> It
> made a loud "whap whap whap whap" sound (not metallic) and as she went to
> apply the brake it felt to her like it locked up- it made a screech she
> associated with a tire noise (not a chirp like a drive train). She smelled
> something burning, which she took to be rubber but she's not sure. She
> turned the engine off and called me. She thought she'd lost a tire or a
> belt
> but that's not the case.
>
> She wasn't far enough off the road so she started it back up and it
> wouldn't
> move. She gave it a little gas and it caught or released and moved forward
> enough to get farther onto the shoulder.
>
> Getting an accurate description of something like this from my wife is
> something like asking a blind man to describe a Pollock. It's just not the
> way her brain is built.
>
> When I arrived thirty minutes later I thought I caught a lingering burnt
> rubber smell (in my experience burnt brakes have a very distinctive smell
> that lingers; I checked all four rims and they were not hot, but one seemed
> slightly warmer than the others). The belts and tires were fine. I had her
> start it and it ran normally. She was able to move it forward and back
> under
> power a bit as space allowed. I tried pushing it with the engine off in
> neutral and something caught and it wouldn't move for a moment and then I
> was able to "push it past it", so to speak. It moved a bit in reverse and
> caught then released again.
>
> I had it towed home. I'm about to go out and put it up in the air. I'm
> going
> to check rear/e-brakes, (auto) tranny and differential, to start.
>
> When I worked on the hoses I only lifted the front. I set the e-brake for
> probably the first time in months last week and again a few days ago, but
> detected no problems, and I've driven it more than 100 miles in the last
> few
> days, I would think. I did a four-wheel brake job a little over two years
> ago and haven't had any issues. I rebuilt the tranny in January 2010 and
> haven't had any issues with it, but I didn't do anything to the diff at the
> time.
>
> I'm hoping it's the brakes, if it's one of those three, but I don't know if
> I'm gonna be that lucky.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> --
> Cya,
> Robert
>
> '87 & '86 Auto GLs
>