FWIW, I too had a shake or shudder on acceleration and it was indeed the cv joints. I was also getting the occasional clunk, but the shudder was always there. The pulsating brake pedal sounds like rotors. Jeff Stewart ----- Original Message -----
> It does not seem likely that a bad CV joint would cause pulsing in
> your brake pedal. Typically it is caused by a warped brake rotor,
> although I have not experienced it in a Vanagon.
> I have encountered 4 or 5 bad CV joints thru the years and I don't
> recall them causing brake pulsing. The idea of turning in small
> circles for diagnosis is not so useful on a Vanagon because the CV
> joints are only on the rear wheels. On a front wheel drive car the CV
> joints are bent to greater angle when turning and are therefor put
> under more stress.
> On a vanagon you could try to detect whether the CV clicking is more
> frequent when turning left or right; that would help you decide which
> one to suspect. The most recent CV that I had go bad on a Vanagon
> only clicked when going straight ahead at slow speeds under light
> load, and not all the time.
> Are your wheels well balanced?
> Jack up each back wheel and check for a loose bearing by wiggling them
> top to bottom.
> Hope this helps,
> Larry A.
> On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 10:47 AM, orin <alpineorin@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hello!
> >
> > I've been having some pretty loud vibration/noise coming from the
> > read of
> > my '88 Vanagon GL. I did some research and reading on the list and
> > at the
> > Samba and it seemed like checking the CV joints was a good place to
> > start.
> > I also read this article:
> >
> > http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_16_9/cv_joint_maintenence.html
> >
> > for more info on checking/replacing CV joints. At this point I feel
> > like I
> > probably have worn CV joints, but I'm not totally confident and I
> > thought I
> > would ask here before moving forward with the work.
> >
> > One thing I'm not totally clear on comes from the above article:
> >
> > "Another test you can easily perform (thanks to Mark Drillock) is to
> > park
> > on level ground, tranny in neutral, parking brake off (wheels
> > chocked,
> > please!) and try to manually move the axle from side to side. When
> > the CVs
> > are badly worn, the axle will move quite easily, and may even hit
> > the
> > flange plug/cover on the transmission side (clunk). "
> >
> > When performing this test I believe the author means to move the
> > axle
> > toward the wheel/away from the transmission and back, in which case
> > my
> > axles do move about an inch, fairly easily. The thing that confuses
> > me is
> > that I imagine the axles have to move in and out to compensate for
> > the
> > position of the wheel in relation to the transmission. So, is the
> > inch or
> > so of play normal, or a sign of a bad CV joint? The other test
> > mentioned
> > in the article, driving in tight circles and listening for
> > clunking/noise,
> > did not reveal anything.
> >
> > The one other thing that makes me think it could be the CV joint is
> > this.
> > When cornering at highway speed, when the vibration/noise is most
> > noticeable, I found that while turning more sharply the
> > vibration/noise
> > stops. My theory, based on no real experience with CV joints, is
> > that as
> > the weight of the van shifts to one side it stabilizes the joint,
> > stopping
> > the vibration. Is this guess totally out of line? One last
> > diagnostic,
> > when braking the van I can feel the vibration in the brake pedal. I
> > can't
> > feel the vibration in any other way, i.e. the steering, and the
> > vibration
> > while braking seems to be getting worse.
> >
> > Also, I did check the torque on the retaining bolts for the CV
> > joints on
> > the tranny side and the wheel side, everything was tight and in
> > place.
> > While working there I did check around for anything else loose, but
> > didn't
> > see anything.
> >
> > I'd appreciate anyone's experience or suggestions as to whether I am
> > on the
> > right track or not. If not, any other thoughts on what could be
> > causing
> > the vibration?
> >
> > Thanks everyone!
> >
> > --
> >
> > '88 Vanagon GL w/ Suby 2.2 conversion
> >
> > * My Blog <http://orinsalah.blogspot.com/>
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